
Class. 



Book- 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



HISTORY 



CITY OF NEW YO.RK 



MAEY L. BOOTH 

TRiSSLATO OF " JIAKTLN'S HISTORY OF mANCE," ETC. 



ILL LIST RAT ED 



> 



NEW YOKK 
E. p. BUTTON & COMPANY 

713 BROADWAY 

1880 

T 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlic year 186T, 

Br W. R. C. CLARK. 

In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of (he United States for the Southern District 

of New York. 



Copyright 

isai 

Bt E. p. button & CO. 



^n 



THE MERCHANTS OE THE CITY OF XEW YORK, 

WHO, CHEEKFULLT SACRIFICING TUEIR INTEREST TD THAT OP 

THEIR COUSTRY 
IN THE REVOLUTION, 

WERE THE FIRST TO PROPOSE A ^"O^•■I^•TERC0URSE ACT— THE LAST 

TO RENOUNCE IT, AND THE ONLY ONES TO MAINTAIN 

IT IN\'IOLATE; 

AND WHO, EY TUEIR ESEUGV AND ENTERPRISE, HAVE MADE THEIR CITV 
AT THE PRESENT TIME 

TLIE COMMERCIAL METROPOLIS OF THE WESTERN WORLD, 

® In s Stl r k is Inscribe!), 



3 

PREFACE 



Frequent demands for this popular History of the 
City of New York, wliicli has for some time been out 
of print, have led to the publication of a fresh edi- 
tion, revised and brought down to date. This may in- 
deed be regarded as substantially a new book, being for 
the first time made accessible to the general public 
through the regular trade channels, and moreover com- 
prisiug the history of the last twelve eventful years 
which, though seemingly within the memory of all the 
world, will be found a convenient reference for most 
who may endeavor to recall with precision even the 
most prominent facts and dates. 

At the time of its first appearance, this work was, as it 
virtually remains to this day, the only complete Histoiy 
of New York City extant. It had been the fashion to 
tell the story of the metropolis in a series of fragment- 
ary memoirs, full of personal reminiscences and enter- 
taining gossip concerning leading families and familiar 
landmarks, but these, while affording most valuable 
material to the historian, were not history. To write a 
narrative on this plan of the three centui"ies during 
which the great city has grown from a hamlet of a few 
^vretched huts to its existing magnitude, would require 
ponderous and costly tomes, and would be of interest, 
moreover, chiefly to a favored few. 

It has been the aim of the present work to eschew 
this kind of personalities as far as possible, and to con- 
fine itself to a record of the important events in the 



4 PREFACE. 

Histoiy of New York City wliich are iuteresting to the 
pul)lic at large. In the Ijegiuuing, when the histories 
of the province and city are inseparable, this necessarily 
includes the early settlements on the Long Island, New 
Jersey and adjacent shores. Later, it is devoted more 
especially to the city, retaining so much of the history 
of the State as is necessary to preserve the outline of 
events. Especial care has been used to collect the 
incidents of the Revolution, in which the city bore so 
prominent a part, and of the late Civil War. Great 
pains have been taken to consult all accessible authori- 
ties, and to verify facts and dates. In conformity with 
the popular style of the book, references in the form of 
foot-notes have been avoided. The author begs leave 
to acknowledge the assistance received from the wi-itings 
of Brodhead, Valentine, Hildreth, Bancroft, O'Callag- 
hau, Dawson, Irving, Smith, Dunlap, Moultou, Leake, 
Hardie, Watson, Horsmanden, Heckewelder, and many 
others ; as well as the courtesies shown by the va- 
rious city lil)rarians, and municipal and state officials. 
In the pi'eparation of the new edition, especial thanks 
are due the eminent historian, Benson J. Lossing, for 
his excellent suggestions and careful revision of the 
whole work. Cordial acknowledgments are also ten- 
dered to Berthold Fernow, keeper of the State Records, 
for valuable data from the colonial archives ; to the vari- 
ous chroniclers of the Civil AVar ; to Charles F. Wingate's 
"Episode in Municipal Government," in the North 
American Review, and Samuel J. Tilden's "New York 
City Ring " ; and to many who cannot be enumerated, 
for much prized information. It is believed that the 



PREFACE. 



record wnll be found veracious, and that New Yorkers 
will welcome this compact history of their city as a use- 
ful addition to their libraiies. 

In point of fact, New York belongs to the whole 
country, as London does to England or Paris to France. 
It is the metropolis of the United States, in which not 
the citizens alone, but the whole people, from Maine to 
Califoi'nia, are entitled to take interest. New York is 
the American Mecca, toward which all eyes are turned. 
There are few who have not a share in it, either 
through themselves, their fi-iends, or their kindred. 
The gay, fascinating to-wn has a strange attraction. 
Those who have once tasted its delights leave it reluct- 
antly, and long to return to it again. One might fancy 
that like Rome, it has its Fountain of Trevi, whose 
waters once drank are thirsted for ever after. And 
if there is a grain of truth in the adage that no one but 
Washington Irving was ever bom in New York — all 
the rest came very young and stayed — then its citizens 
being chiefly such by adoption, it possesses that cosmo- 
politan element which is the essential feature of a true 
metropolis. 

However this may lie, it is cei"tain that NeAV^ York is 
rich iu memories which are worthy of the most i-everent 
respect, and which belong alike to all its inhal)itants, 
but which are too often unheeded. Throngs of busy 
citizens pass and repass the grave of Stuyvesant and the 
tomb of Montgomery, ignorant of their locality; and 
look Avith indifference on the Battery and Bowling 
Green, teeming Avith reminiscences of the old Dutch 
Colony days; and that cradle of liberty, the Park, 



C PREFACE. 

where still may be seen one of the old prison houses of 
the Revolution. In these things we are far more remiss 
than our neighbors. Boston never forgets to celebrate 
her tea party ; few New Yorkers even know that a 
similar one was once held in their own harbor. Boston 
proudly commemorates her "Massacre;" how many New 
Yorkers are aware that two months previous to this 
Ijrief affray, the eai-liest battle of the Revolution, lasting 
two days, was fought in the streets of New York, on 
Golden Hill, where the first blood was shed in the 
cause of freedom ? 

It is possible, however, that this indifference to local 
memories is an exaggerated outgi'owth of the metropo- 
litan spiiit, which tolerates nothing provincial, and in 
its haste to press fonvard, never stops to look back 
to the past. This is a pity, for an heroic history is a 
stimulus to an equally worthy future. The philosophic 
observer wiU note with pleasure that the iulluence 
of the genial, kindly and tolerant spii'it of the Knicker- 
Ijockers, mingled with the refinement and culture of 
their English successors, still lingers in their adopted 
city, and that the hearty welcome which New York 
accords to strangers from all lands, making them feel 
instantly at home, is the result of that happy mingling 
of races which gave birth to the great American me- 
tropolis. 

If this record of the glorious past of New York 
contributes in any way to inspu-e its peoj^le with a 
deeper love for their city, it ■will serve the purpose for 
which it was designed. 
New York, 1880. MARY L. BOOTH. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I 



New York as it was— Aborigines of Manhatinn— Causes which led to the discovery of 
the island— Eariy navigatois-Iliscovery of Manhattan by Henry HiKl-on-Laiidinir of 
the lirst while mon-n.'nth ami hnrtil nf folman TTiuNiiii nlinii^ t" ll..l;,ii.l ii,„-nino- 
of th.' fur trade— Fir-i Ihni-,.- hnili m, tlir i-land llnil.liii- ..f ■■ 'ri:- l:. ' ,. ■ "■ ■:i,ma- 
tionof th,' \ew X.-ll,.aiaial 1 "iii|,Min A lltaii. ■■ vMih th- nai r, ■•- I',,,;,, ,, ,,, ,,,e 

We>?t India Compaiiv -i mi ii..li..rii ,lar>.l,.(ii M:\ a].|i. .iiiir,l ih-! w, , ,,, A;iival of 

the first colonwts-'I'lH' Wall --W illiaiii Xcrhlll-I ai.|»,n;,.,| .,, n rrtnr— <_)rgan- 

ization of a I'r.iviiir lai i ;i)\.ruinrut — I^.-ter Minnit apiiMinf,.! !'!,<[: in-al of Kew 
Netheriand-l'invlia-,' ..f ihr i-land nf Maiiliatian - l;uili;i_ -! 1.- Amsterdam — 
The Patroc)n--l-'.iiil iiip,' ol the maminotli slu|. "Neu NnhrnnMl i, M miiaitan— Growth 
of tilt coioiiy— It call of FeUr Minilit— His departure l.u H..naiMl. and sHbseqncnt 



C H A r T E R I I 







1633—1643. 


jrival of Won 


t.T Va 


ri Tuiller-First clergvman ai 


Ani-lri.|aii 


^1 


i ; /M ■' ijranteil to Ilir . :> 


BoL'a"). ■ 1 ' 


W 


.M iiN to Fort Oran-r .H' 


Dirt- ' 1 




- on the Coniucli 1 


peter -. li- 11 
Removal ,.l rh 


n: ' < 


1. i;iiud.-Piiri-lias>. of i 


1' ^1 In 


ail tV-.l ^I'arr'i, . <a' !■ ,, 


Wilhelm Ki.f. 


. Ill" 1 




Liberal poiicv 


-il lllr' 


1 '< niij, inv .|hi < 'I .. . i!' 


Settlement of 


(ira\r- 


-end -Tlie .Iaii-( a- ih [; r i. h 


city — t'ity lots 


-Tavc 


■rn built at l'o.-iiUt> Sli|')— C 



-Ohmrh hiiilt 



Seauaut curreucy (;3_]01 



CHAPTER III. 

1613—1664. 
The Indian War r.ii^e. ulii.li ii„l,,, , ,1 ;■ Ma-,), ,■ ,.r n ,,•- 'i,nh.-r]r~< laililv 'ii.-iiii" in 

New .\msteril im 'V ■ T '. : . M. \l -- . |. a I , ... . .' . . II .... I .. i,.,":, of 

the war— The i|. i' K'. ii i a ..;..... .1 a.. . I,- \.i , , . -, I, .,,1 'ii I.... ,.|,,r— 

A trace pi ! i;. ■• " , mI ■in a-- i a- l,.._ia M . a, ■ v. . \, and 

StrirklaiiiV. r , a I .^ .; ma war-palisailas tliniiiL-a Wa.i i i bv 

Kief' . a . ■ ■ .i i ■. . liaaver— Dissatisfaction of Ilia iia.i.i \l ' , IjL'h't 

Men K - ;. iia-rt on— Petrns Stuvvcsant apii" a .■ - i airrel 

betuaaa Ka i; iiai I- i.' nans— Arrival of Stuvvcsant— Miniaap a la-' in,- Minn and 
Knylcr— >liiinvrcck ana ilaaih of ICieft and Bogardns— Coniicil nt Nine .Men cho-en by the 
people — Firewardens appointed— Origin of theFire Department of New York— City 
provements — Municipal government granted to Brenckclcu- 



CONTENTS. 



fit Mmilmltan— First ftntltlmv! 

i.. .i| tin- L.mg Island Firrv— I 

: i,. Iiuliaiis attack fhciiiv- 

, "Ik's iHiti-lit— Tlic EiiL.'lisli i 

-Ui- buriul-iilacc— The old !?tiiv 



>lip— Tuvasion threatened bj' the 
•d to the city— Expedition against 
id census— Projrress of the city — 
-Surrender of the fort— Death of 



C H A P T E E I Y . 
1664— 1G;4. 



Col. Eichard Nicnlls, Governor— The Nicolls Charter— City incorporated under a Mayor, 
Aldermen, and slierill- Mavor Willett— The I.ntherans— War between England and Hol- 
land— Fnrriti.atidii of ihe citv— Peace <>r I'.iei 



of Nicol] 
citv— Tlu 
Holland- 



■ Netlierland ceded to England— Return 



-Ne 



eal gr; 
M:ii d-\V: 



ed to the 
vith 



I if t 



r witchcraft- 
.^ndin-. 
rk, Nice 



Dutch - 
>f tlie Dutch form 
t— Warlike prepa- 
-I'reaty of peace— Final 
'inor— The first council — 
d Lawri'nce— New York, 
156—174 



CHAPTER V. 

107-1. 

w Amsterdnin in the old Dutch colony times— Ilonses and furniture of the Burghers of New 
Amsterdam— Carpets— Beds— Chests and cupboards— Chairs and tahles— Tea parties of New 
Amsterdam— Clocks— Looking-glasses and pictures— Hearthstones of the Knickerbockers — 
Planners and customs— Costimics of the early settlers- Church going— Early streets in the 
citv— Social custo—s— Holidays— New Year's Day— Paas and Pinxter— Christmas— Santa 
cuius 175—195 



CHAPTER VI, 



Sir Edmund Andros, Governor— Despotism of the Dnke of York— Expedition of Andros to 

- - - '- -New citv ordinances established- Freedom of 

.and — Im'pi-nvcnient of Urcind street- Stephanlis 

iMii^r ii! ti,. fiiv Will. V "f tlie island of Man- 

::..;i..i-. Jill"!! 1.1 !i- . i I, V— Establishment 



England— Nicholas de Me. 
the citv-^Tavern rntes-The Sbomi 
Van Corilandt, M:i-."r «.-, j. imiM 
hattan— Franv" 



of the First Adnm ii i i • " '. " -i- 

Andros to Englami h." •" ;i ■ 

lector of Customs uiKi svni i.. Lhl-miuI 1"i 
Andros. and apiiointnu-nt of Cul. Tluiin.i- 
under the English governincnt— Chaitc r if 
into six wards- Monopoly of packing flmn , 
citv— Aldermen and Coinicilmcn for the ili 
veille. Mayor— Sncces-ion of the Dnke of Y 
Persecution of the Jews— Powder ningaziui 
granted to tlie citv— Citv Seal of l(18(i 
proposed— Wall street laid out— Ind 



assumes command of the jin 
Mary to the throne 



-Slepliann 

affairs-lie 

Revolution i 



Mavor— Vii 

:.i i! II" "I f'v "I III his office of Col- 

",". "II. ^" . iiv, >, K, Mayor— Recall of 

i"".r I,,,, iii.i I 'opular Assembly 

. Mil,,, "i ,1 1 :,,i,rs-Ciiy divided 

I, ■ I. , ,"i t"i . \|."ii"iiiiu granted to the 
,1,1 1, il In III.- jui.iile-Gabrielle Min- 
Ihe throne— Nicholas P.ayard, Mayor— 
iflu-il in the citv— The Dongan Charter 
- \an Corilandt, Mavor— Water street 
call of Dongan— Sir Ji^ancis Nicholson 
n England— Accession of William and 
. 196— S18 



CHAPTER VII. 

1G80— 1G92. 

Dissension between the ofiiclals and the people— .Jacob Leisler chosen as the i)optdar leader- 
Seizure of the fort by the Leislerian partv— Committee of Safety apiiointcd— seizure of the 
Custom House- Impotent resistance of iNidiolsou and his party— Flight of Nicholson to 



CONTENTS. 



England— Lei ^I'T mpihhih. .' r.,,irM ,,,'1. i-m < In-! r-ir hI-'mm.^h ..f i)i,. rip.- Pi.i-;' 1 1. hmoy. 
Mayor— Twn hi. i ■■ l. .. |: ,,,,,. :■.■ , ■, \ ■ ■ i. w.,:..!::!,. i;,.r:h- 

ern frontier- i" ;>■■!.■■■'!■., \| ■.. ; ,,, ,> \ :■ im', m ■ , .■, ■ ',-■■.' ..n- it ! .n^laiid^ 

Leisler asj-iiiu'- ili.' ';' i. ■.' l, ' ■ ■ ■ \: <■ , ;: ,■■■ ^l ,- -.n , ■ .m --. Ii..in.'c- 
tady— Lcisler ;u.-kiKnvlfdi;fd Im ;■ \ ,: i ■ I ; , - , ■ , ii,;. ^Lmirh- 
ter appointed Governor— An i\ 1 1 -I Mi;.: In .i' I:, n , ; I - i i. i the 
fort- Arrival of Sloughter— 1 1 1 - i | . i 1 1 , , ■ i i : i , \ ~ i 1 > i and 
Mil borne — John Lawrence ai-jM.: ii;.^ \i.i\ n;- l": i.ii > >i" i In' !'■ i-i iip'! - i;\' . ni h .ri . ii l.i-ij-Ier 
and Milbnrne— Subseoiient reversal ot rlie act nf attainder— A-s.-mbly nt KJ'.il— Sujueme 
Court instituted- Abranam De Peyster. Mayor— Pine and Cedar streets "laid out- Support of 
public paupers assumed by the city— South Dutch Church built in Garden t^treet- Death of 
Sloughter 21U— 345 



CHAPTER YIII. 



Benjamin riclchor, Cnvnin.r f, ',„■■■■ lu tiy f r,,,, ,' TiT'Tni,..! iv|irnl nf the noltins Act- 
n>itiMri .. ' ,. l; ;, I ■ I |,nl\ Fir-t nrwspapiT est:lb 



lislu'd i 
the prii 
of tlir. 
appoiiil 



dUilil. ,1 . I.... . .1 .:; .: i.. ■.-..■ L,,..,i - ..., .;r 1 . A,,, •,- Dolt- 
ins A. I I) i.il l'i..,>.-l, .M,r..,i :\>'/ ■>.; ,..:i^. .-Il.^p.i.il 1.11 l.,,;i|" i- ■ •;, -lirilin 

the tin -l.i;i-i> -r ll.r Ifirv -FiTiv i I- , , p. UiuuK-r, 3Iayur-\i-r ..f 11. , ,.iitto 

Boston -Hi- .Icalhaiul liiirial in tlh ., ■■ fort— John Nanfiiii. l.i. :in i, :,tii (Jov- 

ernor-Urni.nal iiHil Impreachment ..I I; i I,, , muston— The Noell •■].'.:,..:, Ai:rstof 

Bavard— Arri\;il ot Lord Cornbury a.~ ti^.uiii.u, and :;Ubsequent chau:,'<- lu itiu a^pi-tt of 
affairs ;J4tt— 268 



CHAPTER IX. 



Character and antecedents of Combnrv — nis instructions from Queen Anne— Indian Laws— 
Marliet for Siaves in Wall strei-t-Difflcultius witli tlie negroes— Reception of Coniliurv l)y 
the Corporation— Fir-i I n . -i iiii:a it -.!i,,m1 r.ral)li -lied in tlie City— Yellow fever in \ew 
Yorli— Panic amonu' ilh . i: - i: ]ii..\ li ni roniipurv tu Jaiiiaica— Keiisiims per-enition— 
Trinity Cemetery don ii-l " 'ii iiui. !i -['iir. ha--' F)v Trinity cluin-h of die property 

of Anelce Jans— War jm- 1 i:!.i ■'. _ mi-i Fi.n •■ md >paiii-F"rlili.ati r Ihrciiv-Poll 

tax instituted — Assemltly of i; i . 1 1. ^|. .■ i~im a ' -: n'ia; \ la-ii-i i i- [i. t - : a: a >ii and im- 
prisonment of the clergy — Hi- r i i ' I'iol;- 

ress of the city— Philip Freiia I i , a> ■ ' i , ; i air in 

Pine street by the Huguenot> ^ia;i,iii. i. .. i la^ iia^^a-aa i - .ai "-la*. n l-,aiai I.'.- a . a j)ri- 
vateersmen— Ebenezer Wilson, ^I lya ['an idwav paved for the Hi-i tiiii' — Naw f. ii y lease 
granted to James Harding — .\rrival of Lord Lovelace as Governor— Conduct of the .Assem- 
bly—Death of the Governor— (ierardiis I'.eiknian at the head of aSairs— lioherr Hunter, Gov- 
ernor— Commencement of German immiurilion- The Palatine- — Liith.'iaii ilmnli built m 

Broadway— Lewis Morris of Morrisania-Hostile e.\p,alii uaa-t r.inada Fii-t negro 

plot in the city— Peace of L'trecht—Conte-t heiweeii 111- i- la \ -mdiK In-itution 

of aCourt of ChaneiTV- Return of Ilnnter lo Kii-laiid '. . . anai-i.i.d ii.l'.-ter 

Schuyler— .Jacobus Van Ciirll.indt, Mav.>r--Progcs- of ila . n , \Faa ijaal ooini: - iif the 

administration of Hnni. ■ i , '- Ibalhcote. Mavor-lli- In-naa .md ant.r,driii--Alms 

House and House .d' 1, .' i,.,l in lli.^ Ooinnion .lame- .Tolin-lnii, \I:ua.r-Flrst 

public clock in the ■ ■ !'a a .nan rhiurll ereeted ill Wall -treel-Fn-t rapewalk 
built in Broadway— da ,aai- \ ,i, c.nlalidl, . Mayor-Arrival ..f William liiirnel a- Gov- 



10 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE X. 



Marriage of th'^ On 

afEiiirs— (ihiiK-r- .v 

of the cir ■ 

enterpri" 
street— <■" I ' : i 
— Rnlicrl W.i.i. - 



1720—1732. 

nor to n hwlv of New York— Debut of f'a(h\alla(ler Colden in political 

■i:^- .Ml the iinrtliiTii niicl\ve>trrn fv"iiiii'i-—l'olicy of Buniet— Abolition 

■ ! !>;.;. - 11 .,f I lie infr'lnM t-- -( ipi iiitiL' i>t' tlic fnr tradc to private 

, ' . , .1^ ill \iii:ni\ I'll!;, iilii. - 111 til.' I.^rencli clinrch in Pine 
l; ■: ii.lih.' \---. iiil.l\- ilmn.'. -. (..i-fd.'d liy Jotm Montgomerie 

! M , , ,.: III. ,11...:- - :i.i...in^iiiiti.in-.Iohan.ie«;jiinsen, 

_ \1 , ,, I i.,' .,!.,.. I:.,..,, .,.• I :i,,. 1..I I.. II.. niv-Middle 



All.inn 
(.l... II 1 
— \ ,111.1. 1 

flllL' 111) 

JIar.~li- I 
city— Fir- 
sumes till 



,1^ l;.u,.:a Ml, an, .,...i..iii- 11. .uk I'lILji'.- Hill - W".. lint's 
I -CiU' divided into seven wards— File eni^ines introdueed into llie 
if a Fire Department— Death of Montgomerie— Rip Van Dam as- 
irs- Arrival of William Cosby as Governor 303—388 



CHAPTER XI. 



Character of Cosby— His controverev with Rip Van Dam— Suit institntert in the Exchef^ner— 
Its resnlt- Chief Jnstice Morris removed from ollice and James De I,ancev appointed m his 

" ~ ""iihliratinn of Zenger's Wecklv .TniiriKil- First newspaper 

ii._'. r - ].:i|...r ordered to be piil.li.lv i.iiin.d-Kefnsa: of the 
itii.." III., .rremony— Zenger iiii|. 
\ Siiiiili mill Alexander renioM il 
n..il ;.- .-..1111-. I f..r Z(.ll._'..r Til 



stead— P 
contro\'i 
Mayor a 
Artifiees 


ihlir Sriili 
'l'<"'' 'il' 


Hull ill 


\\,lll M1..I 


law oltl 
the Gov 


'i ';.":'!;"■, 


Conned - 


' ■■ ■ ■ 


Ritrosp. 




of Wutrl 

— Jlark.. 
Six feet t 


Uilklll 1 



CHAPTER XII, 



The negro idnf ,.f 1711— Canse= and .ITci't -I!..1ili,.rv at the hnncp of ITogg— Arrest of Iliiahson 

and his a--... ■ .l. - Il.ii'.lln- m (li. r^.i l .I.'^li ,.i.' .1 l.v fi...- s.i. .•.•-- ix I:iL.|:ili..lls- Tlie 

Spanish n ■- . .... ..,: .. ,' ,.:,. ■: ..■■ i'., I.i.. - rr i: ... :!.,.■ 1.1 - r,.iir....i,,ii .,f 



wife and I'. ...'■ . i:.', |.|....i. -- ..1 .'i.. II ..^ I I',. . I- .• |.,ii.i. 
tion (if panl..i, ami r.^waril I.. ...iil ...-ii,... . . .ii- 1 .i i ;ii . .. - M..i 

deninali. I' .l.ihii liv— Dtlier \\ liii.- a.iii-.il l.v Maiv Ii. 

Kevirw i.f the |.l.il- Yellow fevuv in Nr^^ ^"..lk (,.■,. i_'.. Clii, 



n..ii- I'liii'laliiu- 
-- trial and con- 
I't proceedings — 



CONTENTS. 11 



CHAPTER XIII. 



1758— 17G3. 



Lieutenanl-GovernorDe Lancey— Position of the two great parties of the provirce-De Lancpy s 
,,oMcv— The third intercolonial war— Peace of Aix-la-t'hapelle— Congress at Albany— Charter 
of King's follese sisiitd nn.l -,-:.l.d hy th.- ijov ernor-ronlroversy hctwecn the Epi«copal.;ii,s 



and Presbyteria 

Hector- Society Libr;ii ' : ■ 

York and Staten IslaiHl I 

flcation of the city— Sir ( !i 

Lieutenant-Governor— .John i i 
ressof the French and Indian \' 
Colden, Lieutenant-Go verner- 
General Amher»t to Xew Y.h 
GeoiL'.-n .aihl .-^.M,.n: 



nirain 

I'lOU- 

:ill:i(l,-r 



-Methodist Chi 



of the Government. 



CHAPTER XIV 



The American Colonies at the br^iimin -.f tl,,- Rev,.luti..i. -Policy of Great Bntain-Nayi- 

sation Acts-Proposed schem, ..I un. nia, y laxati.m -Lord (.,rL-nvill;- at the head of the 

British Cabinet— Stamp Act |a.>ii.i-,,l I'l n-t ..f tli<->cw ^ .>ik As-cmhiy— I assnge of the 
Stamp Act— Reception of the in-u^ in i;- ^ :iv I'h.' ^ .n- ..I I ii'"ii> ' ..n-titntimmi i .mi- 
rant p.ibli.hed-Aflair of the (iarLMMl I ■ I'- Pn l-i:~i .Mionial 

Consiress held in New York-Oppo-iM. , ' . ,,y, h. . i i-i I :, hi ■ o,! , , ^ :„ices 
-J,.miiaK,if Nvw York-IIolfs(ia/r,;, , ]'■.-■ t: Mil ■:.- >l . i • h im - n l.nnis 



;, ;,, :' , , ,",'.. ,\.' ~ .. , . I-' ,.!.,._• ii: I'.iittles 

' , , . . i; • |, ., \\ II , M , ■ New 

':,l |-,„ ■ I i,, M, ,,, \, . , ,„,i. ■ I, ;/, . .. :i,. . : , - ■rnibly 

'..I \:.,> \,Mk ia III l;:,ii-h l\.i,;,i I l,.;...uTia -,, :■ A'A .y.Au.no! 

: r, III, ,11. Ill ,,l 111, \,« Vmk mrriliinili-— P'ormal aiM-oliiliun of the 
A<., I , , \ , . ,,11,, ,,,111, 11,,, I lii-i ,i-iti, 111 of till- 11. ■»• Assembly— Sympathy with the 

g^_[ i,i. i; _' ,,i 111, (.,i\, rii-.i 111,1 SiiiriiT of n,)^toii ill effigy on the Commons — Death 

of Mu.iH- uii,l^..ii-i-uiifiit .Kce^>i..u..l CiaualladerColdeu 405^42 



around tlii' 
York A^si'i 

— Di-fni,, ! 
the s , 
As- 



CHAPTER XV. 

1769—1773. 

Di-nosition of the Assembly of 1769— Emission of Bills of Credit-Handbills posted de- 
11011110102 the Assembly— Meeting on the Commons-Public protest— John Lamb cliaraed 
Willi libel, and subsequently di^niissed-Arrest and impri-..iiment of Alexander McDougall 
-Movements of the Sons (if Liberty— Lord North at tin- lu-a.l ot the Britisii Cabinet —Tax 
removed from all articles except tea-Attack of the li.iti-h .oMiir- on the libertj- pole-Con- 
flict 'It Moiifenie'*— Fourth liln-vtv iioli- cut ilovii liv ili, .,,l,li,r.— Indignation meeting 
nn tl,,, I ,11111 M - r ti',, ,,f r;, ,■,],■, n;" Ii,r,',i ,,r •'. IVi'-ii -,.ldiers— Permission to 
'.', , I, i ,1 ,■■,■,-, ,1 I , I, , , , I, M, ■ ' I ': million— Fifth liberty pole 

'.,,,,: ,|, ' I- ',| , .,' ,,,,' ', -, ,1 1,, 1 ,,',,,,■ Hampden Hall by the 

Tii„.itv !■ ,1 1 — \vw iiViik ,Hi 111, III,, in i.,.i.' i.v III.' I'.iiii-ii .,.1 n.i— Their defeat— Final 



12 



CONTENTS. 



destiny of the liberty pole— Nathnn TtixV^' 
of One Hundred— Kesumption of imin'inii 
more amvesasGovemor— Trialof Mt I><>n- 
in respect to the salaries of otficiaN— Sr;ii 
Hospital foimded— Burning of the G^^»vi-mi 



r^ Inimed in effigy on the Common?— Committee 
i,,n— Protest of the Sons of Liberty— Lord Dun- 
ill- William Tryon, Governor— New arrangements 
i.nutVL'd to ijivf place to Montagne— Kew York 
.1 -s liouso in t^lii fort 443-465 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Scheme of Parliament for forcing the tea on the colonies— Reception of the news in New York 
— Resolutions of the Mohawks and Liberty Boy!^—ApprohiT-ioTi' ' ■' ^ ^- - -• 
— Mectiiii of the Sons of Liberty on the 16th of Docimlnr ■Vh,- v 
tea— Tivon returns to Enaland— Colden again at tli- ' ■ ' ' ' 
tea-ship Nancv— Her reception by the Sons of Lil" : ' , 
arrives with tcii— The New York tea pnrtv— Public ' 



ThcBostmi T'ort Bill 
miiortatinn :iLnr. 
-Debut ul A]. xM 
Mew York Iirhr 
:ent h:lck l.i Kirj 



-II: 



of Paul Revere to Nt« 'i"i 
m of the Committee of Fill 
ti — Second Colonial C'ouLTe- 
irr of Sixty appointed in 



of the 


Londoi 


1 merchants 




. Ml-A 
' :■ .if 1 


rriva! of the 
lie Loiiih.n 


^u-at meeting 
iladelphia-Eh 
—The James 


m the fields 
•ction of the 
of Glasgow 



N.' 



rk TI 



A~i! 



■,\ l.v 
M.n- ..t "Li 



lihla 



Commaii(ler-in-< III. r ll i.. New "iOrk and i. 

turn of Tryon— 'I 111 > i: n|u.n the town— Al 

demolished by tin ^ , . I 1 i . iry- Gen. Putnam 

dependence— '■ Dec i.ii..li..h ..1 independence by Ih 

the news in the ciiv— Wa.-hington in New Y'ork- 1 

iii^ton from New Vork— Capture of Fort Washington— The British in possession of the 

city ; 46&-509 



of Long Island— Retreat ol ^\■a5h- 



CHAPTEE XVII, 



1776—1783. 



The British in New York— Gen. Howe, Commander-in Chief— Prisons of the Revolntion— The 
North Dutrh Church— Brick Church in Beekiuail street— Friends' Meeting House— Frencli 
Church in Pine street— Middle Dutch Church— Reminiscences of John Pihtard— Old sugar 
honse in Liberty street— Bridewell— New Jail— Reminiscences of John Pintard. Levi 
■ ■ ■ ■ -The prison ships— Tlie old Jersey, Scorpio- "' ■- "' •' 



ford, 

Freneau's poem on tlie prl 
■ of the house .,f nli 



"T... Fii 



superseded by Sirtiuy 



hers— 

tlagration of i~6— Death of Cadwallader Coldeii— 

Df. I.aucev— Journals of the City— Arrest and imprismmient 

f 111 ■=! i''i . f Ni nv Y'ork— Gen. Clinton, Governor— Aid from 

, • w I S ii_f.>n thwarted by the Action of the New 

I k— Conflagration of 1778— David Mathews, 

, ,11 \. ., 1 IK -I old winter of ]78»-9l>— Treason of Arnold— 

eei hii lii- ;tiiuiiriion by Champe— Capture of Comwallis — 

Conclusion of peace between the United States and 



Great Britain— Evacuation by the British troops of the city of New York 510—568 



CHAPTER XYIII. 



1783—1801. 



Mutilation of the flagstaff by the Britii 
Commander-in-Chief at the fort— Par 
Tavern in Pearl street— Municipal Go\ 
ure of Lafavette for Fran.f.-VlMt ..f .1 



Pou<.'hkccpsie-Fed 



IS previously to the evacuation- Gen. Enos, 
Wa-hingio'n with his officers at Fraunces' 
t n-organized— James Duane, Mavor— Depart- 

-liii.L'l II. !iih1 sti.nlHn— Theirpuhlie reception 
. - ,•' ■ ,. I, \..niilnu — Improvement of tlie 
!ii ^ I limbered by order of the 

' . al Conven tion— Federal 

rill 1 I. Ill I: rmv"— state Convention at 
\(loj)tion of the Federal Constitution- 



Riots in the city— Destruction of the office of the " Patriotic Register "—John Lamb's house 



COKTEIVTS. 



13 



in XVall street attackol l.v ih. 
— CilvHai: repaincl-Wa-lnii: 
arrival and r«c-|. II. HI l.v ili^ [.: 
in Wall stiTii Aiiixal I.I 
Theatre--- 11.11 . J-- i 

Selu..^a] ..I .V 

Cltv-A|.-., ■ M. . .il.... I 



(.f the f.'.l. rnl t:..v.inment 
(11,1 \-i., I'l. -i.l.iii Tlieir 
:iii,ii.-.l III M„ j-.-.l. Ml Hall 

N.u \,.ik .l..hii street 



■. l;.-..,, I''... I . .,. Ii Meet-C-iiet in Xe.. \ ..il- 11 1 • !:.'.. i ._■ .i: i . ■ \i ■.,ll..ni!e 

-. ...11 ■ .lav treaty— YelluH le\.i in tii.- , ii y - r..iiii.-,.l ih.-.in ai the 

uf the el^'liteelith i entiiry 5011— BU 



CHAP TEE XIX. 



New York in the beginning of the nineteenth centnrv— Bouiuis of the 
flelil— Public gardens— Country seats— Itahniond "Hill Ma 



Chelsea— Mnrray Hill— The 
man House— Madame Jiir 
Bunker'- Man-.i.jn Hoiiv,. 
— Ne« .Tail— H.,u-e.irK..f 
le.;e-i;,.H.-i..l..ut lli-.tll 



Ai.thnrpe House-Tli. 



Ne 



the IM 



the liefonned Dutch Churcll-^[>elety lanrary— (. uMom House— Po: 
Theatres— Newspapers— Markets — Ferries — tjiiip yards — Fire Department- 





iii.i 


a Col- 


III- 1 II 


111. h 


.•s of 


1- anil . 




msof 


■t Drtiee- 


-iia 


uks— 


-Militia- 


-Manners 




. 615-6(33 



CHAPTER XX. 



The Manhattan Water Works— City Hall erected in the Park— De Witt Clinton, Mayor- 



Polities of the 
Fire of 18IM-Publi"c ' 
mont— Ferries l)et» e.- 
—St. John's Chapel . 
ship maityrs- Fire ot 



and Burr— Foundalii 

Steam Navigation— Fulton a 

I Brooklyn— Steam ferr\ 1. 

.•adeliff. Mayor— Internuni 

k Island surveyed and lai.i . . 

paratious Un- defeiu-e— CI., 



-leal Society- 
-fnn-The Cler- 
- Willet. Mayor 



.\ I ^U— Meetings 

in the Park— Harbor l..ii,iKaii..i,:-— I'repaiatious Un- defeiu-e— CI.,-. ..i il.^ W .n-Polit,cs of 
the city- Cadwallader D. Colden, Mayor- Stephen Allen, Mayor- William Pauldiiij;, Mayor 
—Visit of Lafayette to New York— The Erie Canal Celebra'tion— Death of De Wilt Clin- 



CHAPTER XXI. 



1825—1855. 



Introduction of gas into t 
Opera— The Garcia Ti - 
change built in Wall 
Charter of 18.30— P.. In 
the citv— Establishni 
Mayor-^Great tire of l- 
Mayor— Robert H. :Mi 
the Croton into th.- 
Mayor- Politics in ih. 
Charter of 1849— Ast< 



■ity— .Toint -lock i 



nieof ]S-y,-Th.. Ttiilian 

il.ai ,1- M II li .lit>'Ex- 

'I Mil \ uded 

I ■ :: .' I i-m ill 

. ,;,.- \\ l.inM-ence, 

-III. -l-aac L. Varian, 

i-ii in— Introduction of 

; Hia — Tames Harper. 

1 Wii..rll,ull— Amended 

l\ini;sland, .Mayor— .leiiny Lind 



York— .\rrival of Kossuth— Jacob A. Westervelt, Mayor— The Crystal Palace- 
Frauconi's Hippodrome— New York in 1855 T33 "" 



53 



14 



COJfTENTS. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

1855—1860. 

Consolidation of Brookhii. Vrilliamebureih ami Tiiishwicl<— Hard Winter— Mayor Wood's Ad- 
ministration— Cliarttrnf 1857 -Castle Gani.r f nii-fMrm. ci -nf.. ;m Emigrant Dep6t— Rachel 

and Thackeray in New York— Tlie Central Ik Nn, .1, i t, rof 1857— Burning of the 

Quarantine B'uildinss-Changes in the • ;■ i _ '• ,; Works— Police Kiots— 
Financial Distress— Burden Mnrder— Poll. I I 1. I .ibtrnade- Burumg of the 
Crystal Palaie-Japanese Embassv-Ciieai 1l„,li.:; L-.l.;- ! !.a...:.n— The Prince of Wales in 
Ne\y Vork-Election of Mr. Lincoln 755 



CHATTER XXIII. 



1800—1880. 



Accession of Mr. Lincoln — Brt-.^ikin-.' ' 
Meeting— March nf tli,- N. v \ . k 
ticin— Death of Cni,,ii,l 1 ■ 
Kanitarv Commissi.'!!— L.i, k , 
Fair— The Presideiiliiil Ek. i;.. ; 
Richmond— Assassination nf I'l. - 
Department— Death of Preston }\ . i 
—Atlantic Telegraph— Board of Ik 
Park and Tammany Hall— Burnn . 
Speculation— Loew BridL'.- Ink. . 
Grand Opera House- BiK.:k - li 
York Post Otiicc— Death ..• ! ■ : ' 
Grand Duke Alexis— Orai!_-. I; . i- 



i.f the Insurrection-Peace Measures — Union Square 

niiriil^- Union defence Committee — Relief Associa- 

II Meeiinirs — Volunteering— Union League Club— 

s,.iiety— The Draft— The Great Riot— The Sanitary 

V Y.ivk— Hotel Burning- Gold\yin Smith— Fall of 

; 1 i;,.. iii-His Obsemiies in New York— Paid Fire 

\. , .if Design— Burning of Barnum's Museum 

I k I in Xe^v York — Demolition of St. Johns 

1868— Real Estate 



Tkiki'i 



Ne 



York - 



Xe 



• Ch; 



al Deput-Ne 
■ i; . M - . , Tfiuple— Visit of 
Fra' .!- W.'-M k. -1. T. Annexation of— 
iVdrus \ i>n— Latayelte Statue— Hell 
|il,,~Kiii— Seyenth Keginie'nt Armory— New York Hospital— Lenox Library— Dese- 
if Mewart's Graye— List of Mayors— Eleyated Railmaus — Metropolitan Museum of 



15 



Xist of Illustrations. 



^ 21— LISPENARD'S MEADOWS (in the lieart of wliich now stands tlie St. 

Nicholas Hotel). 
~ 29— HENRY HUDSON. 
r34— THE HALF MOON ASCENDING THE RIVER. 
-/45_THE COUNCIL AT TAWASENTHA, in 1G17. 
> 53— SEAL OF NEW A.MSTERD.U\I. 
>69-WRATH OF VAN TWILLER. 
■^ 89— NIEUW NEDERLANDT (supposed to he the Earliest View of New 
York now extant). 

- 93— OLD HOUSE, corner Peck Slip and Water Street. 
■^ 97— STADT HUYS (erected in 1043). 

-^104— INDIANS BRINGING TRIBUTE. 
11.3— MASSACRE OF INDIANS AT PAVONIA. 
128— PETER STUYVESANT, the last of the Dutch Governors. 
129— SEAL OF PETER STUYVESANT. 
140— SEAL OF NEW NETHERLAND, 1G25— 1664. 
153— THE OLD STUYVESANT PEAR-TREE. 
154_TOMB OF PETER STUYVESANT. 
159— OLD LUTHERAN CHURCH (erected about 1764). 
163— FIRST ENGLISH SEAL OF THE PROVINCE. 
174— NEW YORK IN 1674. 

176— HOUSEHOLD IN THE OLD DUTCH COLONY TIMES. 
177— DUTCH GROCERY IN BROAD STREET. 
195— PORTRAIT OF SANTA CLAUS, the Patron Saint of New Amsterdam. 

- 303— DUTCH COTTAGE IN BEAVER STREET IN 1679. 
213— CITY SEAL OF 1686. 

243— RESIDENCE OF N. W. STUYVESANT. 
^ 243— OLD GARDEN STREET CHURCH (erected in 1696). 



16 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

258— THE STITTVESANT MANSION. 

283— FRENCH CHURCH IN PINE STREET (erected in 1710). 
■^285— PORTRAIT OF AUGUSTUS JAY. 

299— PORTRAIT OF CALEB HEATHCOTE. 

304— PORTRAIT OF CADWALLADER COLDEN. 

316— OLD SUGAR-HOUSE IN LIBERTY STREET. 
-317— MIDDLE DUTCH CHURCH IN OLDEN TIME. 

—835— OLD RUTGERS MANSION, at the junction of East Broadway and 
Division Street. 

348— OLD FERRY-HOUSE, corner of Broad and Garden Streets. 
-^349— RHINELANDER'S SUGAR-HOUSE AND RESIDENCE. 
-351— OLD BROOIvLYN FERRY-HOUSE OF 1740. 
^ '371— PORTRAIT OF SIR GEORGE CLINTON. 

371— PORTRAIT OF LADY CLINTON. 

374— ST. GEORGES CHAPEL IN BEEKMAN STREET (erected in 1752). 

- 377— KING'S COLLEGE. 

385— THE WALTON HOUSE IN 1807. 
-388— ENTRANCE HALL OF THE WALTON HOUSE. 
"~ 389— SITTING-ROOM IN THE SECOND STORY OF THE WALTON 

HOUSE. 
--401_METHODIST CHURCH IX JOHN STREET (erected in 1785) IN THE 

OLDEN TIME. 
^403— BRICK MEETING-HOUSE IN BEEKMAN STREET. 
— 415— ATLANTIC GARDEN HOUSE (Burns' Coffee-House). 
--43a— BATTERY AND BOWLING GREEN DURING THE REVOLUTION. 

463— NEW YORK HOSPITAL (erected in 1773). 
^475— PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 

490— WASHINGTON'S HEADQl\\RTERS IN FRANKLIN SQUARE. 
^ 523— BRIDEWELL (erected in 1789). 

527— NEW JAIL. 
^ 545— PORTRAIT OF JOHN JAY. 

-- 559— PRIVATE ROOM OF SIR HENRY CLINTON, No. 1 BROADWAY. 
~- 571— DINING-ROOM IN FRAUNCES' TAVERN, comer of Pearl and Broad 

Streets. 
-577— STONE BRIDGE ON THE CORNER OF BRO.\DWAir AND CANAL 
STREET IN 1812. 

- 593— FEDERAL HALL AND THE VERPLANCK MANSION. 
620— MURRAY HILL COTTAGE. 

C20— THE TOMBS. 

628— COLUMBIA COLLEGE, at tlie foot of Park Place. 

031- THE BIBLE HOUSE, in Eighth Street. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 17 

PAGE 

"-635— SOUTH REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, comer of Fifth Avenuo and 

Twenty-first street. 
^ 639— COLLEGIATE MIDDLE REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, in Lafayette 

Place. 
"^641— REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH, corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty- 
ninth street. 
\ 645— TRINITY CHURCH, Broadway. 
^ 647— GR.\CE CHURCH, Broadway. 

649— FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, Fifth Avenue. 
^651— PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, formerly corner of Fifth Avenue and 
Nineteenth street. 
653-ST. JIATTHEWS CHURCH, corner Broome and Elizabeth streets. 
654— OLD ST. PATRICKS CATHEDRAL, corner of Mott and Prince streets. 
657— THE OLD PARK THEATRE. 
658— THE AMERICAN MUSEUM. 
-, 665— RESERVOIR OF MANHATTAN WATER-WORKS, in Chambers St., 
1825. 
-^ 667— CITY HALL AND PARK. 

^671— THE GRANGE, Kingsbridge Road. Residence of Alexander Hamilton. 
~- 675— CALVARY' CHURCH, corner of Twenty-first street and Fourth Avenue. 

677— FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOLHOUSE ERECTED IN NEW YORK. 
"^ 679— COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 
681— ROBERT FULTON. 

683— THE " CLERMONT"— FULTON'S FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
694— CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, corner of Fifth Avenue and Tenth st. 
~707— ST. PAUL'S CHAPEL. 

~-711— TOMB OF MONTGOMERY, in wall of St. Paul's Chapel. 
"~T27— ACADEMY OF MUSIC. 
730— THE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY. 

735— OLD CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH, formerly in Broadway. 
742_WALL STREET (looking toward Broadway). 
74C_HIGH BRIDGE. 
747— CROTON RESERVOIR. 

750— INTERIOR OF CASTLE GARDEN IN FORMER TIMES. 
752— CRYSTAL PALACE. 
^ 763— VIEW IN THE CENTRAL PARK. 
^--767- SKATING SCENE IN THE CENTRAL PARK. 
85.5— LOWER ARSENAL. 
859— COOPER INSTITUTE. 
865— ALL SOULS' CHURCH. 
871— VIEW FROM THE PARK, 
if i -•©;5_SUB-TRE.\SURY. 
cfijf .8t*^CUST0M-H0USE. 



ly 



HISTORY 



CITY OF ^EW YORK. 



CHAPTEE I. 

1(309—1633. 



Primitive New York— Aborigines of Manliattan— Causes wMcti led to tlie Discovery of 
the Islaud— Karly Navigators— Discovery of Manliattan by Henry Hudson— Landing of 
tlie first Wliito Men. 

Two liimdred and eiglity years ago, tlie island on Avhicli 
now stands the city of New York was uninhabited by 
white men. The lower part of it consisted of wood- 
crowned hills and beautiful grassy valleys, including a 
chain of swamps and marshes, and a deep pond. North- 
ward, it rose into a rocky high ground. The sole 
inhabitants were a tribe of dusky Indians, — an off- 
shoot from the great family of the Algonquins, that 
inhabited the vast territory bounded by the Penobscot 
and Potomac, the Atlantic and Mississippi, — dwelling in 
the clusters of rude wigwams that dotted here and there 
the surface of the country. The rivers that gird the 



20 HISTORTOFTHE 

island were as yet unstirred by tlie keels of ships, and 
tlie bark canoes of the native Manhattans held sole pos- 
session of the peaceful waters. 

The face of the country, more particularly described, 
was gently undulating, presenting every variety of hill 
and dale, of brook and rivulet. The upper part of the 
island was I'ocky, and covered by a dense forest ; the 
lower part grassy, and nch in wild fruit and flowers. 
Grapes and strawberries grew in al)un dance in the fields, 
and nuts of various kinds ^vere plentiful in the forests, 
which weie also filled with abundance of game. The 
brooks and ponds were swarming with fish, and the soil 
was of luxuriant fertility. In the \-icinity of the pi'esent 
"Tombs" was a deep, clear and beautiful pond of fresh 
water, (with a picturesque little island in the middle) — 
so deep, indeed, that it could have floated the largest 
ship in our navy, — which was for a long time deemed 
bottomless by its possessors. This was fed by large 
springs at the bottom, which kejit its waters fresh and 
flowing, and had its outlet in a little stream which flowed 
into the East Eiver, near the foot of James street. 
Smaller ponds dotted the island in various places, two 
of which, lying near each other, in the vicinity of the 
present corner of the Bowery and Grand street, collected 
the waters of the high grounds which suiTounded them. 
To the northwest of the Fresh Water Pond, or Kolck, 
as it afterwards came to be called, beginning in the 
vicinity of the present St. John's Pai'k, and extending 
to the northward over an area of some seventy acres, 
lay an immense marsh, filled with reeds and brambles, 
and tenanted by frogs and water-snakes. A little 



CITY OF NEW YOKK, 



21 




C I T Y O F N E W Y O R K . 23 

rivulet connected this marsli with the Fresh Water Pond, 
which A\"as also connected, by the stream which formed 
its outlet, with another strip of marshy laud, covering 
the region now occupied by James, Cheny, and the 
adjacent streets. An unbroken chain of waters was thus 
stretched across the island fi'om James street at the 
southeast to Canal street at the northwest. An inlet 
occupied the place of Broad street, a marsh covered the 
vicinity of Feriy street, Rutgers street formed the cen- 
tre of another marsh, and a long line of meadows and 
swampy ground stretched to the northward along the 
eastern shore. 

The highest line of lands lay along Broadway from 
the Battery to the northernmost part of the island, 
forming its back-bone, and sloping gi-adually to the east 
and west. On the corner of Grand street and Broadway 
was a high hill, commanding a view of the whole island, 
and falling off gradually to the Fresh AVater Pond. To 
the south and west, the country, in the intervals of the 
marshes, was of great beauty — rolling, grassy, fertile, 
and well watered. A high range of sand hills traversed 
a part of the island, from Yarick and Charlton to Eighth 
and Greene streets. To the north of these lay a valley, 
through which ran a brook, which formed the outlet 
of the springy marshes at Washington S(piare, and 
emptied into the Xorth River at the foot of Hammersly 
street. 

The native Manhattans belonged to that well-kno\vn 
race of North American Indians, the manners and cus- 
toms of which have been made too familiar by repeated 
descriptions to require a detailed notice at our hands. 



24 HISTORY OF THE 

Tliese were the same in outline among all the tiibes ; 
the chief difference lay in the individual character, and 
in this there was a mai'ked distinction. One tribe Avas 
peaceful and gentle ; another, tierce and warlike ; a third, 
treacherous and cunning. The natives of the island of 
Manhattan were distinguished for their ferocity, in con- 
trast Avitli their peaceful In'ethren of the neighboring 
shores. They lived in plenty on their beautiful island, 
the Avomen cultivating maize, pumpkins, beans, and 
tobacco, and gathering the roots and bemes which 
Nature so abundantly yielded ; the men scouring the 
forests in quest of game, and drawing stores of fish from 
the ponds and rivers. Their villages were scattered 
here and there in pleasant localities over the island — 
villages consisting of clusters of huts, made by twisting 
the tops of young saplings together, and covering them 
with strips of bai'k. Windowless and Hoorless were 
they, Avith boughs for doors, and a hole in the roof to 
let out the smoke. Yet each of these structures usually 
acconuuodated from six to thirty families, who lived in 
peaceful haimony together. 

Like most savages, they were fond of di-ess, and 
shaved their croAUis, painted their faces, and adorned 
their deei'-skin mantles and moccasins Avith feathers, 
shells, and wampum, in the most approved style. This 
Avampum, which served as a circulating medium among 
them, and afterwards became a recognized currency 
among the whites, consisted of small cylindrical beads, 
made from the Avhite lining of the conch and the purple 
coating inside the muscle-shells — the purple beads being 
worth twice as much as the Avhite ones. 



CITV OF NE W YO EK, 1:0 

lu rommon witli tlieii- race, they were eloquent ora- 
tors, trusty friends, crafty enemies, brave warriors, and 
cruel victors. Tliougli at first disposed to receive their 
white visitors with fzivor and to treat them kindly, it 
was not long before their own jealous nature, together 
■^vith the ever-present spii'it of European encroachment, 
brought on the usual warfare, in which Indian sagacity 
and cunning was forced to succumb to the superior skill 
of the white man. 

Let us glance briefly at the causes which led to the 
discovery of this vast and hitherto unknoM'u region. At 
the period of which we speak, more than a century had 
elapsed since Columbus had first unlocked the door of 
the new continent, yet little was known of it in the 
old world beyond the bare fact of its existence. Its 
geography was Avholly unknown to its new possessors. 
Its possible resources were totally disregarded ; in itself 
it was regarded as a thing of little value, and the chief 
iitility of the new discovery was supposed to lie in the 
easy communication which it might afford to the rich 
countries of the East. Now and then an adventurous 
na\'igator sailed along the coasts, landing here and there 
and erecting a flagstaff, and thus taking possession of 
the country iu the name of his sovereign ; yet but few 
attempts at er[)loration had been made, and these few 
had proved, f<n' the most part, unsuccessful. Some of 
the explorers had penetrated a little way into the inte- 
I'ioi', and some had planted colonies which had soon lieen 
broken up by hardsliips and discouragement, but few had 
been al)le to gain much topographical knowledge of the 
countries which they claimed to own. The English had 



26 HISTORYOFTUE 

succeeded iu establishing a small colouy at Jamestown, 
and the French had founded a colony at Quebec, and 
made a settlement at Port Royal, but the rest of the 
country remained in the hands of the natives. 

In the year 1524, Francis I. had dispatched Jean 
Verrazaui, a skillful Florentine navigator, ^vith a squad- 
ron of four ships, to explore the coast of North America. 
Soon after their departure, three of these became dis- 
abled in a violent tempest, and Verrazani reached the 
island of Madeira with but a single vessel. Stopping 
here a few days to refit, he proceeded on his voyage, 
and reached the American coast, as it is supposed, in the 
vicinity of "Wilming-ton, whence he coasted northward, 
and was the first to enter the bay of New York, ^vhich 
he thus describes : 

"After proceeding one hundi-ed leagues, we found a 
" veiy pleasant situation among some steep hills, through 
" Avhich a veiy large river, deep at its mouth, forced its 
" way to the sea. From the sea, to the estuary of the 
" river, any ship heavily laden might pass with the help 
" of the tide, ^vhich lises eight feet. But as we were 
" riding at anchor in a good berth, we would not 
" venture up in our vessel without a knowledge of 
" the mouth ; therefore we took the boat, and entering 
" the river, -we found the country on its banks well 
" peojiled, the inhabitants not differing much from the 
" others, being di'essed out ^-ith the feathers of bii'ds of 
" vaiious colors. They came towards us with evident 
" delight, raising loud shouts of admiration, and showing 
" us where we could most securely land our boat. We 
" passed up this river about half a league, when we 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 27 

" foiiud it formed a most heautifuJ lake, three leagues iu 
" circuit, upon which they were I'owing thirty or more 
" of their small boats from one shore to the other, filled 
" with multitudes who came to see us. All of a sudden, 
" as is wont to happen to na\'igators, a violent contrary 
"wind blew in fi'om the sea, and forced us to return to 
" our ship, greatly regretting to leave this region, A\hich 
" seemed so commodious and delightful, and which we 
" supposed must also contain great riches, as the hills 
" showed many indications of minerals." 

This graphic description is the more worthy of notice, 
inasmuch as it is the earliest now extant of the island 
and natives of Manhattan. From here Verrazani pro- 
ceeded to the haven of Newport, where he anchored for 
fifteen days, after which he coastetl northward as far as 
the fiftieth degree of north latitude, then returned to 
France, where he published a brief narrative of his jour- 
ney. To the newly discovered coimtr}-, he gave the 
name of New France, a name by which Canada con- 
tinxied to l)e known as long as it remained in the 
possession of the French. This discovery laid the foun- 
dation for a claim by France on all the territory north 
of the Carolinas — a claim which she long continued to 
maintain. Previously to this, hoAvever, Sebastian Cabot, 
a Venetian by birth, in the service of Henry VII., had 
explored the country from Labrador to Florida, thus 
giA-ing to England a prior claim upon the same territory. 
As has before been said, both nations had profited by 
these discoveries to make settlements in the country 
thus claimed by each, the one iu Virginia and the other 
in Canada ; but at the period in which our history opens. 



28 HISTORY OFT HE 

the whole of the vast territoiy lying between these 
distant points remained in the possession of its first 
owners, the natives. It was not long before a third 
nation disputed the rich jirize mth them by \4rtue of 
the right of actual possession. 

At this time, the Dutch were the richest commercial 
nation on the globe. Hadng conquered their inde- 
pendence from Spain and their country from the sea, 
they turned their attention to commerce, and with such 
success that it was not long before their sails whitened 
the waters of every clime. A thousand vessels were 
built annually in Holland, and an extensive trade was 
carried on with all the European nations. But their 
richest commerce was with the East Indies ; and the 
better to secure themselves in this against all com- 
petition, the merchants engaged in this traffic had, in 
1602, obtained a charter of incorporation for twenty- 
one years from the States General under the name of 
the East India Company, gi-antiug them the exclusive 
monopoly of the trade in the Eastern Seas beyond the 
Cape of Good Hope on one side and the Straits of 
Magellan on the other, with other valuable privileges. 
This obtained, it next became desirable to shorten the 
passage thither, and thus to render the commerce more 
lucrative. The voyage to China by the only kno-mi 
route — that by the way of the Cape of Good Hope — 
consumed two years, and the time seemed long to the 
impatient merchants. It was thought that a more expe- 
ditious passage might be discovered by the way of the 
Polar Seas, and three expeditions, under the command 
of Bareutsen, Cornelisseu, and Heemskerck, were dis- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



29 




HENRY HUDSON. 



C I T Y O F N E W Y O R K . 31 

l^atclied, one after the otlier, in search of it. But they 
found nothing but ice and snow where they had hoped 
to find a clear sea, and returned after ha\aug endured 
unheard-of liardships, and earned a hasting fame as the 
earliest Polar navigators. 

The English, in the meantime, had not been idle. 
Jealous of the gi-owing commercial prosperity of their 
neighbors, they determined on trying the experiment in 
which the Dutch had failed. In 1607, a company of 
merchants fitted out a ship, and inti'usted it to the com- 
mand of Heniy Hudson, an Englishman and an experi- 
enced and skilKul navigator, with instructions to carve 
a passage through the Polar Seas to China and Japan 
for the benefit of England. But he met with no better 
success than his predecessors, and after two voyages, the 
merchants became discouraged, and refused to permit 
him to make a third trial. 

Hudson, however, was more than ever sanguine of the 
ultimate success of the enterprise, and after an unsuccess- 
ful neo-otiatiou with Henri IV. of France, he induced the 
Dutch East India Co. to fit out a small yacht called the 
Halve Maeu, or Half Moon, of sixty tons burden, manned 
with a mixed crew of Dutch and English, twenty in num- 
ber, to attempt the discoveiy of the Northwest Passage.* 

Hudson sailed from the Texel on his third exi^edition, 
on the 6th of April, 1609, hoping to reach the Indies by 
the way of the Polar Seas. After a stormy yoyage, he 
reached the banks of Ne^\^oundland early in July. 
Here he lay becalmed for some time, after which he 
steered to Penobscot Bay, where he remaiue<l a week to 

» He was instmcted to attt-mpt no other route than that above Nova Zembla. 



32 n I S T O R Y F T II E 

replace Lis foremast, which had beeu lost during the 
voyage, and to mend his rigging. Coasting southward 
as far as Chesapeake Bay, lauding on his way at Cape 
Cod, which he mistook for an island and named New 
Holland, he retraced liis course, and proceeded north- 
ward to Delaware Bay, Avhich he attempted to exi:)lore ; 
but finding the navigation ditficult, he again put to sea, 
and, on the evening of the 2d of Sept., came in sight of 
the Highlands of Navesinck, which he describes " as a 
" good land to fall in Avith, and a pleasant laud to see." 
Here he remained all night, and setting sail the next 
morning came to what he describes as "three great 
" rivers," the northernmost of which he attempted to 
enter, but was prevented by the shoal bar before it. 
This was probably Rockaway lulet ; the others, the 
Raritan and the Narrows. Foiled in this attemjit, he 
rounded Sandy Hook, sending a boat before him to 
sound the way, and anchored his vessel in the louver 
bay. Seeing that the waters were sAvarming -with fish, 
he sent a boat's crew to obtain some. They landed, it 
is said, at Coney Island, and were the first white men 
that ever set foot on the soil of the Empire State. 

We can easily excuse Hudson if he forgot the North- 
ern Passage and the Polar Seas — the prime objects of 
his expedition — in the beautiful scene before him, and 
determined to explore this strange, new country, Avhich 
was worth more than all the wealth of the Indies. The 
shores were covered \vith gigantic oaks fi'om sixty to 
seventy feet high, the hills beyond were croAvned with 
grass and fragrant flowers, strange wild birds were flit- 
tiuo- throuu'h the air, and flsh were darting through the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 33 

sparkling waters. Friendly Indians, dressed in mantles 
of feathers and fine furs, and decorated with copper or- 
naments, flocked on board the vessel, bringing corn, to- 
bacco, and vegetables for the mysterious strangers. 
Hudson received them kindly, and gave them axes, 
knives, shoes, and stockings in retiu-n. But these arti- 
cles were all new to them, and they put them to a new 
use ; they hung the axes and shoes about their necks for 
ornaments, and used the stockings for tobacco pouches. 

Hudson remained in the bay for a week, sending a 
boat's crew, in the meantime, to sound the river. They 
passed through the Narrows, entered the bay, and came 
in sight of the grassy hills of Manhattan. Passing 
through the Kills, between Staten Island and Bergen 
Neck, they proceeded six miles up the river, and disco- 
vered Newark Bay. On their return, the boat was 
attacked by the natives. An EngUsh sailor named John 
Colman was struck in the throat by an arrow and killed ; 
two others were slightly wounded, and the rest escaped to 
the ship with the dead body of their companion, to carry 
the tidings of the mournful catastrophe. This was the 
first white man's blood ever shed in the territory, and it is 
probable, though not certain, that the sailors themselves 
were the first aggressors. Colman was an old comrade of 
Hudson ; he had been the companion of his earlier voy- 
ages, and his death inspired him with distrust and hatred 
of the natives, whom before he had regarded with favor. 
On the following day — the 9th of September — the first 
white man's grave in these regions was dug on Sandy 
Hook, and the spot was christened Colman's Point in 
memory of the departed 



34 



HISTORY OF THE 



On the nth of September, 1609, the Half Moon passed 
through the Narrows, and anchored in New York Bay. 
Distrusting the fierce Manhattans, the captain remained 
there but a single day. Canoes filled with men, women 
and children, flocked around the ship, bringing oysters 
and vegetables ; but though these were purchased, not a 
native was sufTered to come on board. 






/ i' 




TU,' Half Moou ascemliug the river. 

The next day Hudson made his way up the river 
which now bears his name, and through which he hoped 
to find the long-sought passage to the Indies. He called 
it the Groot Rivier. It was called by the respective 
tribes which inhabited its shores, the Shatemuc, Mohi- 



C I T y F N E W Y R K . 35 

can, and Cahohatatea. The Dutch afterwards gave it 
the name of the Mauritius, in honor of Prince Maurice 
of Nassau, by which it continued to be known until the 
name of its discoverer was properly bestowed on it by 
its English owners. Sailing slowly up the river, and 
anchoring at night in the friendly harbors so plentifully 
scattered along his way, Hudson pursued his course 
towards the head of ship navigation, admiring the ever 
changing j^anorama of the beautiful river with its lofty 
palisades, its broad bays, its picturesque bends, its ro- 
mantic highlands, and its rocky shores, covered with 
luxuriant forests. Everywhere he was greeted with a 
friendly reception. The river Indians, more gentle than 
those of the island of Manhattan, welcomed the strangers 
with offerings of the best that their land afforded, and 
urged them to remain with them. Fancying that the 
white men were afraid of their arrows, they broke them 
in pieces and threw them into the fire. Game was 
killed for their use, hospitalities were urged upon them, 
and every attention which a rude but generous nature 
could prompt was offered to the strangers. Indeed, this 
seems in the beginning to have been the usual conduct 
of the natives, and it is probable that in their future 
hostilities, in nearly every instance, the whites were the 
aggressors. 

On the 21st of September, Hudson reached the site of 
the present city of Albany, which, greatly to his disap- 
pointment, he found to be the head of ship navigation. 
To be sure of the fact, he dispatched the mate with a 
boat's crew to sound the river higher up, but, after pro- 
ceeding eight or nine leagues, finding but seven feel 



36 HISTORYOFTHE 

water, they were forced to return with the unwelcome 
intelhgeuce. After remaining at anchor for several 
days, during which time he still continued to hold friendly 
intercourse with the natives, Hudson prepared to descend 
the river. His stay here was marked by a revel, the 
tradition of which is still preserved among the Indian 
legends, and the scene of which is laid by some historians 
upon the island of Manhattan. Various legends of a 
similar import concerning the introduction of the fatal 
" fire-water " are in existence among the different tribes 
of Indians ; everywhere the same causes produced the 
same results, and the multiplicity of these traditions may 
easily be accounted for. 

On the 23d of September, Hudson commenced to 
descend the river. He had ascended it in eleven days ; 
he descended it in the same time, constantly receiving 
demonstrations of friendship from the natives of the 
neighboring shores. But unfortunately this harmonj' 
was soon destined to be broken. While anchored at 
Stony Point, an Indian was detected pilfering some goods 
through the cabin windows. The offender was instantly 
shot by the mate, and the frightened natives fled in con- 
sternation. 

Nor was this the only rupture of peaceful relations 
with the hitherto friendly natives. Following the exam- 
ple of other discoverers, who were accustomed to carry 
to their own homes specimens of the natives of the new 
countries which they had visited, Hudson had seized and 
detained two Indians on board his ship at Sandy Hook: 
both of whom had escaped during his passage up the 
river, and were lying in wait for his return, to avenge 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 31 

their captivity. Their narrative had enlisted the sympa- 
thies of their countrymen, and a hxrge body gathered in 
their canoes at the head of Manhattan Island, and 
attempted to board the vessel. Repulsed in the attempt, 
they discharged a harmless flight of arrows at the yacht, 
which was returned by a musket shot, which killed two 
of their number. They scattered in dismay, only to 
gather again, reinforced by several hundreds, at Fort 
"Washington; where they again attacked the vessel as she 
was floating down the stream. A few musket-shots soon 
put tliem again to flight, with the loss of nine of their 
warriors. This strange new weapon of the white men, 
speaking in tones of thunder, and belching forth fire 
and smoke, was more terrible to them than an army of 
invaders. They did not return to the attack, and Hud- 
son pursued his way unmolested to the bay near Hobo- 
ken, where he anchored for the last time, and, lying 
windbound there for one day, set sail for Europe on 
the 4th of October, just one month after his arrival, to 
carry to liis patrons the news of the discovery of a new 
country, and the opening of a new commerce. Though 
Verrazani was the first to behold the island of destiny, 
to Hudson belongs the credit of being its practical dis- 
coverer, and of opening the way to its future settlers.''^ 

The directors of the East India Company were dis- 
satisfied with the success of the enterprise. They had 
expected to find a short road to the land of silks 
and spices, and cared little for the rich lands and 
broad forests described by Hudson. Hudson proposed 
again to undertake the enterprise, and would probably 

* The result, as we have shown, of disobedience to his instructions. 



38 HISTORY OFTHE 

have done so, but, having hinded at Dartmouth on his re- 
turn homeward, he was forbidden to leave the country by 
the Enj;lish authorities, who were jealous of the advan- 
tages which the Dutch had gained by his means. Untir- 
ing in his efforts to find the northwest passage, that ignis 
fatuus which has lured on so many intrepid navigators 
to their destruction, he sailed on another voyage of dis- 
covery in the service of his early English patrons in the 
spring of 1610, and, after passing a winter of suffering 
among the Arctic regions, perished, abandoned by his 
mutinous crew, amid the ice and snows of the bay which 
bears his name. The Half Moon, on her return to Hol- 
land, was dispatched on a trading voyage to the East 
Indies, during which she was wrecked and lost on the 
island of Mauritius.^' 

The voyage of the Half Moon to America, if it did not 
gain the exact thing desired, was at least suggestive of 
a new idea to the busy Dutch speculators. Though 
their most lucrative traffic was with the East Indies, 
they did not neglect the smaller mines from which 
money might be extracted, but maintained a flourish- 
ing commerce with the other European nations, espe- 
cially with Russia. They dispatched nearly a hundred 
ships to Archangel every year, whence they carried on a 
lucrative traffic in fui'S with the interior of the country, 
subject to a duty of five per cent, on aU goods exceeding 
an equal amount of importations. But Hudson's 
glowing accounts of the rich peltries which he had seen 
among the natives of the newly-discovered territory, 
suggested to the traders that it would be much cheaper to 
purchase them with knives and trinkets in a country where 

* The account of Hudson's voyage was first published by Van Meteren, iu ICll 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 39 

custom-houses and duties were unknown, than to buy them, 
as hitherto, at a high rate in Russia. Acting under the 
impulse of this idea, in 1610, a few merchants fitted out 
another vessel, and dispatched her under the command 
of the former mate of the Half Moon, to trade in furs 
with the Indians. The speculation proved eminently 
successful. Stimulated by their example, other mer- 
chants joined in the enterprise, and in 1612 dis- 
patched the Fortune and the Tiger, under the command 
of Hendrick Christiaensen and Adriaen Block, on a trad- 
ing voyage to the Mauritius River, as it was now called. 
The following year, three more vessels, under the com- 
mand of Captains De Witt, Volckertsen, and Mey, were 
sent from Amsterdam and Hoorn to the same coast on 
the same errand. 

The fur traffic might now be considered to have fairly 
commenced, and a new mine of wealth to be opened to 
Holland. It was determined to open a regular com- 
merce with the new province, to make the island of 
Manhattan the chief depot of the fur trade in America, 
and to establish agents there to collect furs while the 
ships were going to and returning from Holland. Hend- 
rick Christiaensen was appointed the first agent. He 
built a redoubt with four small houses on the site of the 
present 39 Broadway, and thus laid the foundation of 
the future city. 

The navy was commenced about the same time. One 
of the vessels, the Tiger, commanded by Adriaen Block, 
was accidentally burned just as he was preparing to return 
to Holland. He immediately set about building another, 
the fine timber of the island furnishing him with ample 
materials, and in the spring of 1614, finished the first 



40 HISTORYOFTHE 

vessel ever launched on the waters of Manhattan. This 
was a yacht of sixteen tons burden, and was called the 
Restless — a name truly prophetic of the future city. 
The building of the vessel occupied the whole winter, 
the friendly natives meanwliile supplying the strangers 
with food. 

The little yacht completed, Block set about explor- 
ing the neighboring country. Passing through the 
Hellegat into the Long Island Sound, he discovered the 
Housatonic, and Connecticut, or Fresh River, as he named 
it, in contradistinction to the Hudson, the waters of 
which were salt, and ascended the latter to the head of 
navigation. Returning to the Sound, he again proceeded 
eastward to Montauk Point, which he christened " Vis- 
schel's Hoeck," and discovered Block Island, which still 
bears his name. Continuing his course to Narragansett, 
or Nassau Bay, he thoroughly explored its waters, 
discovered Roode or Red, since corrupted into Rhode 
Island, and coasted northward as far as Nahant Bay, 
exploring and naming the intervening bays and islands, 
which, however, had before been discovered and named by 
earlier English adventurers. On his return to Cape Cod, 
he encountered the Fortune, which had quitted Manhat- 
tan to return to Europe. The temptation was too strong 
to be resisted, the picture of home rose before his eyes, 
and leaving his little yacht, too frail to encounter the 
perils of the ocean voyage, in the charge of Cornelis 
Hendricksen, he embarked in the returning vessel to 
bear the news of his discoveries to Holland. He never 
returned to the scene of his early discoveries, but his 
name is one of the few relics of the early pioneers that 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 41 

still remain to us. His comrades had not been idle in the 
meantime. Cornelissen Mey had explored the southern 
coast of Long Island, thus proving for the first time that it 
was an island, and had visited Delaware Bay and bestowed 
liis name on its northern cape, while Hendrick Christiaen- 
sen had ascended the Mauritius, and built a little struc- 
ture, half fort, half warehouse, armed with two large 
guns and a few swivels, and garrisoned by eleven men, 
on Castle Island, a little below Albany. This post he 
christened Fort Nassau in honor of the stadtholder. 

It is affirmed by several historians that, soon after its 
foundation, the little settlement was visited by Captain 
Argall of Virginia on his return from his Acadian expe- 
dition, and that the Dutch traders were compelled by him 
to strike their flag and to acknowledge the supremacy of 
England. But this assertion seems unsupported by suffi- 
cient evidence. The earlier historians are silent in re- 
spect to it, nor do the state papers of either nation make 
mention of the fact. The story rests upon the authority 
of one or two printed English works, unsupported by 
documentary evidence, and cannot at least be affirmed 
with certainty ; the probability is that it is fictitious. 

A few months previous to Block's return to Holland, 
the States General of the Netherlands, to encourage 
emigration, had passed an ordinance, granting to all dis- 
coverers of new countries the exclusive right of trading 
thither for four vo3^ages. Unwilling to lose any part 
of the profitable commerce thus opened by their enter- 
prise, the merchants who had fitted out the first expedi- 
tion made a map of all the country between the Cana- 
das and Virginia, and, claiming to be the original dis- 



42 HISTORY OFTHE 

coverers thereof, petitioned the government for the 
promised monoply. This was granted, and on the 11th 
of October, 1614, they received a charter, granting them 
the exclusive right of trade, to the territory lying be- 
tween the fortieth and forty-fifth degrees of north lati- 
tude, for four voyages within the period of three years ; 
and forbidding all other persons to interfere with this 
monopoly, under penalty of confiscation of both vessels 
and cargoes, with a fine of fifty thousand Netherland 
ducats for the benefit of the grantees of the charter. In 
this instrument, the province first formally received the 
name of New Nethei'land. 

The merchants now formed themselves into an asso- 
ciation under the name of the "United New Nether- 
land Company," and prepared to carry on their opera- 
tions on a more extensive scale. Parties were sent to 
explore the interior, and to collect furs from the natives 
which were stored at the depots of Fort Nassau and 
Manhattan ; and Jacob Eelkins, a shrewd and active 
trader, was appointed agent at the former, in the place 
of Hendrick Christiaensen, who had been murdered by 
one of the natives. This is the first nmrder on record 
in the province. The murderer, a young Indian, whom 
Christiaensen had carried to Holland on his first voyage, 
and who had ever since remained with him, met a 
speedy death from the hands of the settlers. 

Yet the Dutch did not neglect to cultivate the friend- 
ship of the natives. The several tribes within the pro- 
vince of the New Netherland differed widely in char- 
acter. The whole, indeed, claimed originally to have 
been one people, the Algonquins, or the "unbroken 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 4S 

nation ;" but few vestiges remained of the original 
brotherliood. The generic name of this people was 
Wapanachki; the name "Indian" was an anomalous one, 
derived from the idea that Xorth America formed part of 
the Indies. The Manhattan Indians were fierce and war- 
like, though they treated the traders kindly, and supplied 
them with food during the long, cold winters. The Mo- 
hicans on the east side of the river were peaceful and 
friendly, yet they were the deadly enemies of the Min- 
cees, who dwelt on the other side ; and their war parties 
often crossed and recrossed the river on hostile expedi- 
tions. On the southern border of the province, along 
the Delaware River, were the Lenape or Delawares. To 
the north of these, were the Mengwes or Iroquois, the 
most dreaded and powerful of all the Indian tribes. 
These held acknowledged supremacy over all the other 
tribes. Their hunting-grounds stretched across the 
entire province, and their wigwams opened at the east 
on the Hudson River, and at the west on Lake Erie. 
But they had not gained this ascendency without a 
strufgle. Weak in the beginning, they had learned to 
comprehend that union is strength ; and the five tribes 
which originally occupied this vast extent of territory — 
the Mohawks, Oneidas, Senecas, Cayugas, and Ononda- 
gas. had leagued themselves together in a firm union 
under the name of Iroquois, or the Five Nations. 
Later, the Tuscaroras were admitted into the confeder- 
acy, and the Five Nations were thus increased to six. 
Strengthened by this alliance, and fierce and despotic by 
nature, they soon subjugated their gentler brethren, and 
forced them to lay aside their weapons and to assume 



14 HISTORY OFTHE 

the name of " women," trusting their defence entirely 
to them. They sent their ohl men into the villages to 
collect tribute from the river Indians, and there was not 
one among them who dared refuse it. A single Iroquois 
would put a hundred Mohicans or Mincees to flight, so 
great was the terror inspired by them. But this sove- 
reignty did not extend to the Hurons or Canada Indians, 
who were as formidable as they, and their constant and 
deadly foes. The French in the Canadas leagued with 
the latter, and taught them the use of firearms ; and see- 
ing themselves threatened with extermination by this 
new and wonderful weapon, the Iroquois hailed the 
arrival of white men in their own country with delight, 
as the only means which could save them from being 
subjugated in turn, and forced to take their place with 
the Mohicans and Mincees. The Dutch, on their side, 
were quite as ready for the alliance. The country of 
the Iroquois abounded in rich furs which could only be 
obtained through the friendship of the natives. Their 
fort at the head of the river was on the land of the Iro- 
quois, and, without their alliance, they could not secure 
its safety. In the spring of 1617, a solemn council of 
both nations was held in a place called Tawasentha, near 
the site of the present city of Albany. Each tribe of 
the Iroquois sent a chief to the meeting, and a delega- 
tion was also present from the river tribes. A formal 
treaty of peace and alliance between the Dutch and the 
Iroquois was concluded, and the other tribes renewed 
their acknowledgment of the supremacy of the Five 
Nations. The pipe of peace was smoked, and the 
hatchet buried in the earth ; and the Dutch declared 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



45 



that tliey would build a church over the spot, so that none 
could dig it up without overthrowing the sacred struc- 
ture, and thus incurring the wrath of the Great Spirit 
and the vengeance of the white men. Well indeed 
would it have been for them, could it always have thus 
remained buried. 




The Council at Tawasentha, in 1617. 



46 HISTORY OFTHE 

This treaty insured the prosperity of the traders. 
Sure of the friendship of the natives, they fearlessly 
sent their agents among them to obtain their costly furs 
in exchange for the muskets and ammunition they so 
much coveted. It was not long before the Indian be- 
came more skillful than his master in the use of the 
deadly weapon, and grew in turn to be the terror of the 
white man. The agents explored the interior, bringing 
back stores of valuable furs, and the trade became so 
profitable that when, in 1618, the charter of the United 
New Netherland Company expired by its own limitation, 
they petitioned the government to grant them a renewal. 
This they failed to obtain, though they were permitted to 
continue their trade under a special license two or three 
years longer. 

Hitherto the Dutch had looked on Manhattan only as 
a trading-post. They did not think of making them- 
selves homes in this new, wild country, but dwelt in 
temporary huts of the rudest construction, which 
scarcely protected them from the cold. But the English 
were exploring the coast, and laying claim to all the coun- 
try between Canada and Virginia, and the Dutch began 
to realize the importance of planting colonies in the 
new province, and thus securing their American posses- 
sions. 

About this time, too, the little settlement received a 
visit of threatening import. In 1620, Captain Thomas 
Dermer, an Englishman in the service of Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges, touched at Manhattan on his way to New Eng- 
land, and warned the traders not to continue on Enghsh 
territory ; to which they replied that it belonged to them 



CITY OF NEW YORK. il 

of right, as the first discoverers and occupiers. Upon 
this, Dermer, Gorges, Argall and others, petitioned 
James I. for a grant of the province of New Netherland, 
protesting that it was wrongfully occupied by the Dutch, 
and claiming for Dermer the discovery of Long Island 
Sound and the adjacent country. That he was the first 
Englishman who had ever sailed through the Sound 
is probable : yet Block, Christiaensen and others had 
preceded him. He is one of the few who makes men- 
tion of the prior visit of Argall to Manhattan — an inter- 
ested witness, since this pretext served to strengthen his 
claim to the possession of the territory. The king, how- 
ever, listened to their prayer ; a royal charter conferring 
the exclusive jurisdiction of all territories in America 
between the parallels of forty and forty-eight degrees 
was granted to Gorges and his associates, and the English 
ambassador at the Hague was directed to remonstrate 
with the States General against the occupation by the 
Dutch of English territory. But httle attention was paid 
to this remonstrance, and the Dutch went on in their 
work of colonizing New Netherland. 

There was little freedom of thought at this time in 
England. The people were divided into two great re- 
ligious sects, the Episcopalians, and the Puritans. The 
latter, by their stern denunciation of the rites and cere- 
monies of the Episcopalian Church, the established 
Church of England, their refusal to conform to the 
statutes of the realm, and their almost fanatical opposi- 
tion to everything that savored of prayer-book or 
ritual, had drawn upon themselves the displeasure of the 
government. Disapprobation soon grew into persecu- 



48 HISTORY OFTHE 

tion. The Puritans sternly refused to yield a single 
point of their obnoxious doctrines, while the government 
daily increased in rigor. Weary of the contest, a num- 
ber of the persecuted nonconformists fled, with their min- 
ister, John Robinson, to Holland, where they foand the 
fullest toleration. Settling at Leyden, they organized 
a congregation, and enjoyed the religious freedom which 
they had failed to obtain in their native land. Yet here 
they felt hke strangers. The manners and customs were 
foreign to them ; the language was strange and the gov- 
ernment unlike their own, and their children were grow- 
ing up in the speech and habits of the new country and 
forgetting their mother-tongue. They were English and 
they feared to become Dutch. The New World offered 
a tempting home to them in which they could enjoy both 
civil and religious liberty, and train up their ofispring in 
their own faith and language. It was at first proposed 
to settle at Guiana, but this scheme was finally aban- 
doned. Hearing of the glowing accounts of the pro- 
vince of New Netherland, Robinson entreated permis- 
sion of the Dutch to settle there, promising to take with 
him four hundred families if the govei'nment would 
pledge itself to protect him against all other powers. 
The offer pleased the merchants, who would gladly have 
transported them thither free of cost, and have fur- 
nished them with cattle and agricultural implements to 
aid them in establishing the much-needed colony. But 
the States General had other plans in view. They wished 
to organize an armed military force that could assist 
them in the war which they were then carrying on with 
Spain ; and besides, they thought it better policy to peo' 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 65 

and Notelman and Van Remund retained their offices of 
schout and koopman. Tlie council organized, he turned 
his attention at once to public improvements. The Com- 
pany had authorized him to fortify the depots of the fur- 
trade, an.d he was not slow in obeying their instructions. 
The fort which had been commenced in 1626 and never 
completed, and which was now in a ruinous condition, 
was rebuilt, and a guard-house and barracks erected at 
a heavy cost for the newly arrived soldiers. Having a 
minister, a church now became indispensable. The loft 
in the horse-mill in which prayers had been read for the 
last seven years was abandoned, and a wooden church or 
rather barn was erected, on the shore of the East River, 
in Pearl between Whitehall and Broad streets ; near 
to which was also constructed a parsonage and stable for 
"the domine." By this appellation, the ministers of 
the Dutch churches long continued to be known ; the 
name is even now in vogue in some of the western 
settlements of Long Island. A graveyard was also laid 
out on the west side of Broadway, above the present 
Morris street. Three windmills were built in the 
vicinity of the for.t ; so near it, indeed, that the build ■ 
ings within the walls often intercepted the wind and 
rendered them useless. Several brick and stone build- 
ings for the use of the director and his officers were built 
vfithin the walls of the fort. Van Twiller also caused a 
dwelling-house, barn, breweiy, boat-house and other 
out-buildings to be built on Farm 'No. 1. of the Com- 
pany, extending from Wall street, northward to Hudson 
street, where he himself took up his abode. The farm 
No 3, at Greenwich, he appropriated as his tobacco 
5 



66 HISTORY OFTHE 

plantation. Houses were built for the corporal, the 
smith, the cooper and the midwife, and several costly 
dwellings were also erected at Pavonia and at Fort? 
Nassau and Orange, all of which were constructed at the 
expense of the Company. 

About this time, the commercial importance of New 
Amsterdam was increased by the grant of " staple 
right ;'' a sort of feudal privilege, having its basis in the 
institutions of the Fatherland. By this grant, all vessels 
trading along the coast, or passing up and down the 
rivers, were obliged either to discharge their cargoes at 
the poi't, or to pay certain duties in lieu thereof. This 
right was valuable, for it gave to the colony the com- 
mercial monopoly of the whole province. 

In the person of Domine Bogardus, Van Twiller had 
brought with him an unruly subject. Scarcely had he 
commenced his administration, when the latter began to 
rebuke him for his conduct in public affairs. Van Twil- 
ler angrily resented the interference, whereupon Bogar- 
dus anathematized him from the pulpit as a child of the 
devil, and so incensed the governor that he refused ever 
to enter the church-doors again. The people naturally 
took sides in the quarrel, and the contest between 
governor and domine continued to the end of the admin- 
istration. In the records of the year 1638, we read that 
"for slandering the Rev. B. Bogardus, a woman was 
"obliged to appear at the sound of a bell in the fort 
"before the governor and covmcil, and to say that she 
" knew that he was honest and pious, and that she lied 
" falsely." However this may be, it is certain that Bogar- 
dus was rude and imperious, and that many charges 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 67 

were brought against him which were never sufficiently 
refuted. 

A short time before the arrival of Van Twiller, Pe 
Vries returned with the mammoth ship Xew Nether- 
land and a yacht, to visit his little colony of Swaanen- 
dael. Mournful, indeed, was the scene that met his 
eyes. Where he had left a flourishing settlement, there 
was naught to be seen but blackened ruins,; charred 
trees, and the mouldering bones of the unhappy 
colonists. De Vries sickened at the sight ; but prudently 
concealing his sorrow and anger, he summoned the 
Indians, gleaned from them an account of the terrible 
disaster, then, instead of wreaking on them the vengeance 
they had expected, dismissed them with presents to 
meditate on the mercy of the white men. Such a 
vengeance would have been the signal for the destruc- 
tion of every white man within the province. This De 
Vries well knew ; and after contracting this necessary 
but detested alliance, he sailed to Virginia, and opened 
a friendly intercourse with the governor, Sir John Har- 
vey, who assured him that the Dutch had nothing to fear 
from that side, but warned them to beware of their 
Plymouth neighbors. On parting, the friendly gover- 
nor sent several goats as a present to the director at 
Fort Amsterdam, by whom they were gladly received, 
there being as yet none in the colony. 

Soon after the arrival of Van Twiller, the William, an 
English ship, arrived at Manhattan, with Jacob Eelkins, 
the former agent at Fort Orange, who had been dismissed 
by the Company in 16.32, as supercargo. Irritated by 
his dismissal, Eelkins had gone over to the service of the 



68 HISTORYOFTHE 

English, and had no\Y come in the interests of his new 
employers to trade in furs with the Indians of the Mauri- 
tius River. This was contrary to the policj- of the West 
India Company ; and Van Twiller, who, though a bad 
governor, was a good merchant, understanding the value 
of the monopoly of the fur trade, refused to permit the 
vessel to proceed on its way, and demanded Eelkins' 
commission. This Eelkins refused to produce, declaring 
that he was on British territory, discovered by an 
Englishman, and that he would go up the river if it cost 
him his life. The governor forbade him in the name of 
the Dutch government, and ordered the flag to be hoisted 
at Fort Amsterdam, and three guns to be fired in honoi 
of the Prince of Orange. In return for this display, 
Eelkins run up the English flag by way of bravado, and 
ordered a salute to be fired in honor of King Charles ; 
then coolly sailed up the river in defiance of the guns of 
Fort Amsterdam, leaving the astonished governor to 
meditate on his audacity at his leisure. 

Thunderstruck at such an act of daring, Van Twiller 
summoned all the people together in the square before the 
fort, now the Bowhng Green, then ordering a cask of wine 
and another of beer to be brought, he filled a glass, and 
called on all good citizens who loved the Prince of Orange 
to do the same, and to drink confusion to the English Gov- 
ernment. The citizens were not slow in obeyitig the com- 
mand ; and, indeed, this was all that they could do, for the 
ship was now far beyond the guns of the fort, and safely 
pursuing her journey up the river. But they were deeply 
mortified at the governor's pusillanimity, and De Vries 
openly taxed him with cowardice, and told him that if i< 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



09 



had been his case, he should have sent some eight-pound 
beans after the saucy EngUshman and helped him down 
again, but as it was now too late for that, he should cer- 
tainly send the Soutberg after him and drive him down 
the river. After meditating on this counsel for a few 
days, the vacillating Van Twiller resolved to follow it, 
and dispatched an armed force to Fort Orange, where 




WratU of Vau TwiUc 



70 HISTORY OF THE 

Eelkins had pitched a tent on the shore, and was busily 
engaged in trading with the natives. This tent the 
soldiers speedily demolished, and, reshipping his goods, 
brought his vessel back to Fort Amsterdam, where he 
was required to give up his peltries, and was sent to sea 
with a warning never more to intei-fere with the trade 
of the Dutch government. 

It was not long before Van Twiller, who always acted 
promptly on inopportune occasions, attempted to vindi- 
cate his statesmanship at De Vries' expense. The latter 
wished to send his yacht through Hellegat to trade along 
the coasts, a privilege to which he was entitled as a 
patroon ; but the governor refused his consent, and 
ordering the guns of the fort to be turned on the reced- 
ing vessel, commanded her to stop and unload directly. 
"The land is full of fools!" exclaimed the exasperated 
De Vries, running to the Battery point where stood 
the governor with some of his council, "if you want 
" to shoot, why didn't you shoot the Englishman when 
" he sailed up the river ?" The governor dared not give 
the order to fire, and the yacht passed on, and was soon 
winding her way through the tortuous channels of the 
Hellegat. 

Although, in the general appropriation of patroon- 
ships, no claim had been made on the country about the 
Connecticut River, and the few settlers who had gone 
thither had soon returned with their families to Manhat- 
tan, the Dutch had constantly kept up a brisk trade with 
the Indians, and as constantly asserted their right to the 
territory. In the meantime, a grant of the same terri- 
tory had been made to Lord "Warwick by the English 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 7] 

government ; and Van Twiller, taking alarm at the 
movements of the English, determined to forestall them 
by securing its possession. During the summer preced- 
ing the arrival of Van Twiller, a small tract of land at 
the mouth of the Connecticut River had been purchased 
of the Indians, and the arms of the States General affixed 
to a tree. Immediately after his arrival, the governor 
dispatched Jacob Van Corlaer with six other agents 
thither, who purchased a tract of land of tlie Pequods 
near the site of the present city of Hartford, and built 
a redoubt upon it, which they fortified with two cannon 
and named Fort Good Hope. 

Hearing of this encroachment, the people of Plymouth 
applied to the Massachusetts colony to aid them in driv- 
ing off the Dutch intruders. But, deeming the country 
almost valueless on account of the difficulty of entering 
the river and the hostility of the Indian tribes in the 
vicinity, the latter declined, although Governor Winthrop 
dispatched a letter to Van Twiller, remonstrating with 
him for encroaching upon English territory. To this 
Van Twiller returned a courteous reply, proposing that 
the matter should be referred to their respective govern- 
ments, and hoping "that two great powers might not 
"fall into contention about a little part or portion of 
"these heathenish cotm tries." The Plymouth colonists, 
however, resolved on more decisive measures, and pur- 
chasing a small tract of land of the Indians, just above 
Fort Good Hope, dispatched Lieutenant William Holmes 
thither with a picked company of men and the frame of 
a small house to found an English settlement. As they 
ueared the Dutch post, they were hailed by Van Corlaer, 



72 HISTORYOFTHE 

who threatened to fire if they proceeded. " Fire !" was 
the reply, " we are following the commands of the gover- 
" nor of Plymouth, and, living or dead, we must obey his 
" orders." The true follower of Van Twiller, Van Corker 
dared not fire, and Holmes ascended the river a mile and 
a half higher, set up his house, and founded the settle- 
ment of Windsor. Van Twiller, on hearing of these 
proceedings, served a written protest on the intruders, 
and soon after sent seventy soldiers to dislodge them. 
But they stood on their defence, and the Dutch com- 
mander withdrew without attempting their expulsion. 

In the meantime, De Vries had returned to Holland, 
contending to the last with Van Twiller, who vainly 
endeavored to detain him and to wring from him a tri- 
bute in the shape of taxes and duties. Soon after, he 
withdrew from his partnership in the patroonship of 
Swaanendael, which was bought up by the Company for 
the sum of fifteen thousar.d six hundred guilders, or six 
thousand two hundred and forty dollars. About the 
same time, Notelman, the schout fiscal, who had been 
convicted of dishonesty in the performance of his duties, 
was superseded by Lubbertus Van Dinklagen. 

Trouble broke out in a new quarter. A party of 
Englishmen from Point Comfort, headed by George 
Holmes, took possession of the deserted trading-post of 
Fort Nassau. For once. Van Twiller seems to have 
acted with promptness. He at once dispatched an armed 
force to South River, who dislodged the intruders and 
brought them back as prisoners to Foi't Amsterdam. 
Just at tliis juncture, De Vries arrived from Holland, on 
his way to Virginia. Van Twiller, at a loss how to dis- 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 73 

pose of his prisoners, begged him to wait for a few days ; 
the unlucky EugUshmen were embarked on board his 
vessel, and landed two days afterwards at Point Comfort, 
just in time to prevent a party of their countrymen from 
setting out to rejoin them. This timely action ended 
the proposed invasion, and secured to the Dutch for the 
time being the undisputed possession of the South 
River. 

Not equally fortunate were they on the Connecticut. 
In 1634, a company of emigrants from Massachusetts 
founded a settlement at Wethersfield ; while another 
party established themselves near the mouth of the river, 
tearing down the arms of the States General which had 
been affixed there three years before, and treating them 
with contemptuous derision. To this latter settlement 
they gave the name of Saybrook. Van Twiller, finding 
protests unavailing, dispatched a sloop to dislodge them, 
which was driven off by the English without being 
suffered to land. At a loss how to act, the governor dis- 
patched an account of the proceedings to his sujieriors, 
and waited for further instructions. In the meantime, 
the English occupied Springfield, thus gaining almost 
exclusive possession of the territory of the Fresh River. 

About the same time, some incidents less serious 
and more ludicrous occurred at Fort Amsterdam, which 
have been caught up by the witty historian of the 
Knickerbocker times, and converted into a choice bit 
of satire on the unlucky governor. Finding that Vir- 
ginia was not a good place for the Dutch to trade 
at, De Vries, after landing his prisoners, returned to 
Fort Amsterdam, which he reached about two o'clock in 



74 HISTORTOFTHE 

the morning. The whole city was asleep. Not a sen- 
tinel appeared on the walls, no challenge was given, and 
no one was conscious of the arrival of the vessel. At 
daybreak he fired a salute of three guns. The 
frightened citizens sprang from their beds and seized 
their arms, the startled soldiers ran to their guns, and 
the governor fancied that the English were in possession 
of the city. A few minutes explained the mistake ; the 
people laughed at their terror, and De Vries was heartily 
welcomed back again. His vessel leaking badly, she was 
hauled up into the " Smit's Vly," a morass lying outside 
of Pearl street between Pine and Fulton streets, where 
she was careened and repaired. This " vly " or valley 
afterwards became the site of the well-known Fly 

Market. 

Soon after De Vries' arrival, the first fire in the vicin- 
ity occurred at Pavonia. Cornelius Van Voorst, the 
newly appointed agent for Patroon Pauw, had just 
arrived, bringing with him some choice claret, and 
Van Twiller, with De Vries and Domine Bogardus, 
hastened thither to greet his arrival and taste the 
luxury. The party was not altogether an harmonious 
one, for Van TwiUer and Bogardus, who were friends 
for the occasion, quarrelled with Van Voorst about a 
murder which had recently been committed on his pre- 
mises. They parted, however, on friendly terms, and on 
their return, the agent fired a' farewell salute from a 
swivel that was mounted in front of his house. A spark 
fell upon the thatched roof, the reeds caught, and in half 
an hour the building was in ashes. Such an event had, 
as yet, been hardly anticipated, and no means were at 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 75 

hand for extinguishing the fire ; nor indeed did any exist 
until several years after. 

De Vries soon after prepared to return to Europe, and 
the director resolved to give a banquet in honor of his 
departure. Tables were spread on the Battery in one 
of the angles of the fort and a large company invited 
and Van Corlaer, the celebrated trumpeter of the fort, 
was called upon to furnish music for the occasion. The 
wine circulated fi'eely and all were merry ; but just as 
the festivity had reached its height, a couple of worthy 
"koopmans," or supercargoes, took it into their heads to 
find fault witli the trumpeter. Tlie valorous Van Cor- 
laer vindicated his cause by giving them both a beating, 
upon which they ran home for their swords, uttering 
threats of the most direful vengeance. But their anger 
evaporated during the night, and in the morning, says 
the quaint chronicler of the times, "they feared the 
"trumpeter more than they sought him." De Vries, 
after selecting Staten Island as his future residence, and 
entering his claim to it through the director, set sail for 
Holland, taking with him several Englishmen, who had 
sold their vessel, together with two captured prizes, at 
Fort Amsterdam. 

Van Twiller, as has already been said, was too good 
a merchant to neglect his own interests. In the simi- 
mer of 1636, he, with Jacob Van Corlaer, Adriaeu Hudde 
and Wolfert Gerritsen, purchased a tract of land com- 
prising some fifteen thousand acres on Long Island, where 
they founded New Amersfoordt, the present Flatlands. 
About the same time, he granted to Roelef Jansen a 
tract of thirty-one morgens or sixty-two acres of land, 



76 HISTORY OFTHE 

beginning a little south of the present Warren street, 
and extending along Broadway as far as Duane street, 
and thence northwesterly a mile and a half to Christopher 
street, thus forming a sort of unequal triangle with its 
base upon the North River. This grant afterwards 
became a part of the famous Trinity Church property. 
Jansen died a few years after, leaving four children, and 
his widow and heiress, Aneke Jans, became the wife of 
Domine Bogardus. After his shipwi'eck and death, the 
grant was coufii-med by Stuyvesant to Aneke Jansen, a 
second time a widow with eight children. Upon the 
subsequent capture of the province, the grant was again 
confirmed by the English government to her heirs, who 
sold it hi 1671 to Colonel Lovelace, though one of the 
heirs failed to join in the conveyance. It was now incor- 
porated into the King's Farm, once owned by the Dutch 
West India Company, and, in 1703, was presented 
by Cornbiuy unto Trinity Church, at that time the 
established church of the city. Van Twiller also con- 
firmed the possession of the Waal-bogt to George Jansen 
de Rapelje, one of the Walloons who had emigrated 
with Cornelissen Mey,* and granted to Jonas Bronck 
that part of Westchester lying opposite Harlem. 

Nor did Van Twiller neglect to increase his own pos- 
sessions. Besides his recent purchases on Long Island, 
he already had a flourishing plantation at Red Hook ; to 
this he added Nutten's Island, which lay opposite it, only 
separated by a narrow channel, so shoal that cattle 

* The ceinpanions of de Riipeljo, whose names, slightly changed iu orthography, 
may still be fouud among the residents of the Wallabout and its vicinity, wert 
L'Escuyer, Duregee, Le Sillie, Cershaw, Conscilleur, and Musserol. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 1 1 

foi'ded it at low water. This undoubtedly formed origin- 
ally a i^art of Long Island. But the abrasion of the 
neighboring shores b}^ the waves, together with the fill- 
ing in of the lower part of the city, have widened and 
deepened the chasm, and ships now pass in safety 
through Buttermilk Channel. So lately as the close of 
the last century, its passage ^vas hardly deemed safe for 
boats, on account of the rocks with which it was filled ; 
though market-boats, loaded with buttermilk and rowed 
by women, glided through it on their way from Long 
Island to the Xew York market, and gave it its name. 
Nutten's Island, which had derived its name from its 
abundance of nut-trees, was henceforth known as Gover- 
nor's Island. Soon afterwards he purchased Great Barn 
and Blackwell Islands in the Hellegat River ; becoming 
through these acquisitions the richest landholder in the 
colony. The growing rapacity of the director became 
at length so apparent that it excited public attention, and 
called forth open murmurs from Yan Dincklagen, the 
upright and able schout-fiscal. Incensed at this audacity, 
Yan Twiller removed him from his office, and, retaining 
his salary, which was now three years in arrear, sent him 
a prisoner to Holland on a charge of contumacy. Ulrich 
Lupoid was appointed as his temporary successor. But 
on his arrival, Yan Dincklagen, who was a man of 
marked ability, represented the bad management of the 
director so strongly to the States General, that they 
urged the Amsterdam Chamber to recall him, and to 
reinstate Yan Dincklagen in his office. To this they at 
first demurred, but the representations of Yan Dinck- 
lagen being confirmed bv De Yries, they finally con- 



78 HISTORY OFTHE 

sented, and on the 2d of September, 1637, appointed 
Wilhelm Kieft as his successor. Nor did the schout- 
fiscal stop here ; he also censured Domine Bogardus so 
severely, that the latter, on learning of the charges made 
against him, petitioned for leave to return to Holland to 
defend himself. This was denied him, but the consis- 
tory of his church instituted ecclesiastical proceedings 
against Van Dincklagen, which were brought several 
years afterwards before the Classis of Amsterdam. Van 
Dincklagen was forced to wait many years for the pay- 
ment of his salary, though the States General had signi- 
fied their pleasure that it should at once be paid to him. 
But he finally returned with honor to New Amsterdam, to 
fill one of the most important offices in the government. 
One of the last events in the administration of Van 
Twiller was the purchase of Pavonia from its patroon by 
the "West India Company. This purchase consolidated 
their power, by giving them possession of the Jersey 
shore as well as of Staten Island, Swaanendael they had 
before acquired, and all the patroonships with the excep- 
tion of Rensselaerswyck thus reverted back to them. 
This, indeed, was the only one in which the system had 
produced the colonization so much desired by the Com- 
pany. Yet the settlement at Manhattan remained the 
only one worthy of the name ; and, at this date, the his- 
tory of the city and that of the province must necessarily 
be hiseparable. Pavonia soon lost its euphonic appella- 
tion, Latinized from the uncouth name of Pauw, in the 
hands of its new proprietors ; and at the present time, 
the little village of Communipauw is all that is left to 
remind us of the wealthy patroon. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 79 

On the 28th of March, Wilhehn Kieft, the new 
director, arrived in the ship Herring, at Manhattan. His 
antecedents were not prepossessing. Born at Amster- 
dam and educated as a merchant, he had become a 
bankrupt at Rochelle, where his portrait had been affixed 
to the pubUc gallows after the custom of the city. After 
this, he had been sent to ransom some Christians in 
Turkey, where he was accused of having left several 
captives in bondage, retaining the money which had been 
raised for the purchase of their liberty. He w^as a 
bustling, excitable man, with some show of business 
talent and considerable energy, yet testy, irritable and 
capricious, without stability or mental equilibrium, and 
devoid of the sound judgment and cool prudence so 
necessary in the governor of a province. In some 
respects, he was the superior of the heavy, indolent Van 
Twiller, yet the nervous irritability which rendered him 
so, involved the province in scenes of blood and horror 
which it would probably have escaped beneath the plac- 
able sway of the good-natured director. 

Kieft immediately set to work with bustling activity, 
organizing his council in such a manner as to keep the 
direction of affairs in his own hands. Lupoid was con- 
tinued in the office of schout. Van Tienhoven was 
appointed koopman, and a Huguenot physician by the 
name of Johannes la Montague, who had lately emigrated 
to New Amsterdam, was admitted into the council. 
This done, he set about reforming the abuses which had 
crept into the colony, and repairing the disorder of pub- 
lic affairs. He found no lack of business in this direc- 
tion. The fort was in a ruinous condition, and all the 



so HISTORY OF THE 

guns dismounted ; the church and government build- 
ings were out of repair ; but one of the three mills 
which had been built was in working order, and almost 
all the vessels were leaky or disabled. The few cattle 
of the Company had been sold or transported to the 
plantations of Van Twiller, and their farms thrown into 
commons. There were abuses everywhere- — private 
individuals smuggled furs and tobacco, and sold powder 
and guns to the Indians, regardless of the prohibitions 
of the Company, and law and order were almost obsolete 
in the colony. Kieft energetically set to work to cure 
these evils, and issued a code of laws and regulations, 
which were not much better heeded by the colonists 
than the wordy protests of Van Twiller had been by the 
English. All illegal traffic in furs was forbidden under 
penalty of confiscation of the goods, the selling of mus- 
kets or ammunition to the Indians was made a capital 
offence, tobacco was subject to excise, and no liquor 
but wine was permitted to be sold at retail. Sailors 
were forbidden to leave their ships after nightfall, hours 
were fixed for all to commence and leave off work, and 
strict laws were passed against all vice and profanity. 
Thursday in each week was fixed for the session of the 
council as a civil and criminal court. All persons were 
prohibited from leaving the island without a passport, 
and strict measures were taken to restrain the illegal 
traffic which had grown so dangerous to the interests of 
the Company. 

Meanwhile, the Dutch were threatened with a new 
rival from an unexpected quarter. Minuit, the ex- 
director, indignant at his abrupt dismissal, resolved to 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 49 

l)le the proviuce with their own countrymen. The}', 
therefore, refused the prayer of the Puritans ; and on 
the 3d of June, 1621, granted a charter to the " West 
India Company," conferring on them for a period of 
twenty-one years, the exclusive jurisdiction over the pro- 
vince of New Netherland. The powers thus conferred 
upon this new association were as extensive as those en- 
joyed by the Bast India Company. The exclusive right 
of trade in the Atlantic, from the Tropic of Cancer to 
the Cape of Good Hope on the eastern, and from New- 
foundland to the Straits of Magellan on the western 
continent was granted them. Their power over this 
immense territory was almost unlimited. They could 
make contracts with the native princes, build forts, 
administer justice, and appoint governors and public 
officers, the appointment of the former to be subject to 
the approval of the States General, to whom they were 
required to take oaths of allegiance. In return, the Com- 
pany pledged themselves to colonize the new territories, 
and to keep the States General informed from time to 
time of their plan of operations. The government of 
the association was vested in five separate chambers of 
managers, established in five principal Dutch cities : one 
at Amsterdam, one at Middleburg, one at Dordrecht, 
one in North Holland, and one in Friesland and Gron- 
ingen. The details of its management were intrusted to 
a board of directors, nineteen in number, one of whom 
was appointed by the States General, the others by the 
respective chambers, in proportion to their relative im- 
portance. Full executive powers, with the exception of 
a declaration of war, for which the consent of the States 

4 



50 HISTORYOF T a k. 

General was necessary, was conferred on this board of 
directors, commonly caUed the Assembly of Nineteen. 
The States Genei'al, on their part, promised to protect 
the Company from all interference, to give them a mil- 
hon of guilders, and to supply them with ships and men 
in case of war. The Puritans, meanwhile, repulsed 
on this side, had made their way to Plymouth Rock, 
and planted their faith on the shores of New England. 

The West India Company set about the work of co- 
lonizing the new province with vigor. In 1623, the 
Amsterdam Chamber, to whose especial care the province 
had been intrusted, fitted out the New Netherland, a 
ship of two hundred and sixty tons burden, and dis- 
patched it, with thirty families, to the territory whose 
name it bore, for the purpose of founding a colony. The 
expedition was placed under the command of Cornelissen 
Jacobsen Mey, who was also appointed First Director of 
the province. Most of these new colonists were Wal- 
loons, or French Protestants, from the confines of France 
and Belgium, who had obtained from the Dutch what 
they had vainly sought from the EngUsh, permission to 
make themselves homes in the New World. These were, 
properly speaking, the earliest colonists of the province, 
the Dutch, who had previously emigrated hither, having 
been mere traders and temporary sojourners. The new 
comers scattered themselves over the country. Eight re- 
mained at Manhattan. Four coui^les, who had been mar- 
ried dui'ing the \ oyage, together with eight seamen, were 
sent to South River, where they founded a settlement on 
the Jersey shore, near Gloucester. The Walloons, headed 
by George Janscn de Rapelje, settled on Long Island, 



GiTY OF NEW YORK. - 51 

at the Waal-bogt, or Walloon's Bay, where Sarah de 
Rapelje, the first child of European parentage in the pro- 
vince, was born, in 1G25.''' A few of the colonists were 
dispatched by the governor to the Fresh, or Connecticut 
River, and the rest proceeded with him up the Mauritius 
River, where they built Fort Orange, on the west shore, 
about four miles above Fort Nassau, and vigorously com- 
menced the work of clearing the wilderness. The New 
Netherland returned to Holland under the command of 
Adriaen Joris, the second in command of the expedition, 
with a cargo of furs, valued at twelve thousand dollars. 

In 1625, three ships and a yacht, bringing a number 
of families, with their furniture, farming implements, and 
a hundred and three head of cattle, arrived at Manhattan. 
Fearing lest the cattle might stray away into the forests, 
the settlers landed them on Nutten's, now Governor's 
Island, until further provision could be made for them ; 
but finding the island destitute of water, they were com- 
pelled at once to carry them in boats to Manhattan. 
Two more vessels soon arrived, and the colony now num- 
bered some two hundred persons. 

A nucleus was now formed from which to form a per- 
manent settlement. Hitherto the form of government 
had been simple and the settlers transient, but affairs 
were now assuming a more settled aspect. In 1624, Mey 
returned to Holland, and was succeeded in the director- 
ship by William Verhulst. At the end of a year, he, too, 
was recalled, and Peter Minuit was appointed Director- 

* Recent investigations tend to conBrm the theory that Sarah de Rapelje was 
born at Albany, where her parents appear to have resideJ about the period of hci 
birth, instead of at the Waal-bogt, as has been supposed. 



HISTORY OF THE 



General of New Netherland ; with instructions from the 
Company to organize a provincial government. In this 
government, the supreme authority, executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial, was vested in the Director and Council, 
with full power to administer justice, except in capital 
cases ; in which, the offender, on being convicted, must 
be sent with his sentence to Holland. Next to these 
came the Koopman, who performed the double duty of 
Secretary of the province, and book-keeper of the Com- 
pany's warehouse. Subordinate to this functionary, was 
the Schout Fiscal, a sort of civil factotum, half sheriff and 
half attorney-general, the executive officer of the Director 
and Council, and general custom-house officer. At the 
same time, the first seal was granted 
to the province of New Nether- 
land.* Minuit's council consisted of 
Peter By velt, Jacob Elbertsen Wis- 
sinck, Jan Jaussen Brouwer, Simon 
Dircksen Pos, and Reynert Har- 
menssen. Isaac de Rasi^res, the 

first Koopman, was succeeded two Seal of New Amsterdam. 16o4. 

years afterwards by Jan Van Re- (.Described en p. m.) 

mund ; Jan Lampo acted as Schout Fiscal. 

On the 4th olf May, 1626, Peter Minuit, tne new 
Director, arrived at Manhattan in the ship Sea Mew. com- 
manded by Adriaen Joris. To his credit be it said, the 
first act of his administration was to secure possession 
of Manhattan by lawful purchase. Soon after his arrival 
he bought the whole island of the Indians for the Dutch 
West India Company for the sum of sixty guilders, or 
twenty-four dollars. The island was fifteen miles i;; 

* For engraving of the seal, see D. 140. 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 53 

length, and from about a quarter of a mile to two miles 
ia breadth, and was estimated to contain twenty-two 
thousand acres. 

Having thus become the lawful owners of the terri- 
tory, the first care of the colonists was to provide for 
their personal safety. The English were constantly 
prowling about their coasts and threatening their 
destruction, and they knew that they were not secure in 
the neighborhood of the fierce Manhattans. A fort was 
at once staked out by their engineer, Kryn Frederycke, 
on the triangle which formed the southern part of the 
island, and which seemed chosen by nature herself for 
the purpose. This fort, which was a mere block-house, 
surrounded by cedar palisades, received the imposing 
name of Fort Amsterdam, and was completed in the 
course of the following year. A horse mill was also 
erected, with a large room on the second floor for religious 
services, and a stone building, thatched with reeds, was 
built for the Company's warehouse. Some thirty rude 
huts along the shores of the East River made up the 
balance of the settlement. Neither clergyman nor school- 
master was as yet known in the colony, but two visitors 
of the sick, Sebastian Jansen Krol and Jan Huyck by 
name, were appointed, whose duty it was to read the Scrip- 
tures and the creeds to the people on Sundays. Every 
settler had his own house, kept his cows, tilled his land, or 
traded with the natives — no one was idle. The settle- 
ment throve, and the exports of furs during this year 
amounted to nineteen thousand dollars. 

Minuit now determined to open a friendly correspon- 
dence with his eastern neighbors, and on the 9th of 



54 HISTORY OFTHE 

March, 1727, Isaac de Rasieres, the secretary of the pro- 
vince, addressed au amicable letter by his order to Gov- 
ernor Bradford at Plymouth, congratulating him on the 
prosperity of his colony, and expressing a hope that 
pleasant relations might continue to exist between them. 
This letter was the first communication between the 
Dutch and the Yankees. Bradford replied in the same 
friendly tone, though he took care to throw out a few 
hints on the questionable propriety of Dutch trade 
within the limits of New Eng-land. Alarmed by this 
claim, Minuit answered a few weeks after, vindicating 
the right of the States General to the territory of New 
Netherland. The matter rested thus until three months 
after, when another letter was received from Bradford, 
apologizing for the long delay, and requesting that the 
Dutch would send a commissioner to discuss the 
boundary question in an amicable manner. The sugges- 
tion was complied with, and Isaac de Rasieres dispatched 
on the errand, which amounted to little more than an 
interchange of civilities between the two powers. 

Ere long, seeds of trouble were sown, which ripened 
into a harvest of horror and misery. 

A Weckquaesgeek Indian, who had come down with 
his nephew from West Chester to sell furs to the settlers, 
was attacked near the Fresh Water Pond by three oi 
Minuit's farm servants, who robbed and murdered him. 
His nephew, a mere boy, escaped, vowing vengeance on 
his uncle's murderers. It is but justice to the authori- 
ties to say that they were ignorant of this deed of horror, 
which in after years was visited so terribly upon the 
whole colony. Revenge is an Indian's virtue, and the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 55 

young savage grew up to manhood, cherishing his 
terrible oath, and swearing to wash out his uncle's mur- 
der in the blood of the white men. 

In the meantime, the colony was increasing slowly, 
not so much by new arrivals as by the accession of the 
settlers from Forts Nassau and Orange, and the settle- 
ments at the South River, who, attacked by the Indians 
and tiring of their lonely position, had deemed it 
advisable to remove to Manhattan. Six forms, called 
" Bouwerys," were reserved as the private property of 
the Company, four of which stretched along the east 
shore, the other two lying on the western side of the 
island, and extending to Greenwich. The inhabitants now 
numbered two hundred and seventy. But the settlement 
was expensive, and the Company, who were anxious to 
settle the country, determined to induce individual mem- 
bers of their body to establish settlements at their own 
risk. To effect this, in 1629, an act was proposed by 
the Assembly of Nineteen and ratified by the States 
General, granting to any member of the West India 
Company who should found a colony of fifty persons, 
upward of fifteen years of age, within four years after 
notice ©f his intention, the title of Patroon, with the 
privilege of selecting a tract of land sixteen miles on 
one side or eight miles on both sides of a navigable 
river, and extending as far iidand as they chose, any- 
where within the limits of the province except on the 
island of Manhattan. This, the Company resei'ved to 
themselves, together with the exclusive right to the fur- 
trade, and a duty of five per cent on all trade carried on 
by the patroons. The patroons were required to satisfy 



•56 HISTORYOFTHE 

the Indians for the hmd, and to maintain a minister and 
schoohnaster ; and the Company promised to strengthen 
the fort at Manhattan, to protect the colonists against all 
attacks both from the English and the natives, and to 
supply them with a sufficient number of negro-servants 
for an indefinite length of time. This was the first 
introduction of slavery into the province of New Nether- 
land. Those settlers who emigrated at their own 
expense were to have as much ground as they could 
cultivate, and to be exempt from taxes for ten years ; in 
no case, however, either on the territory of the patroon« 
or the Company, were they permitted a voice in the 
government. They were also forbidden to make any 
woollen, linen, or cotton cloth, or to weave any other 
stuffs, under penalty of punishment and exile. These 
and similar arbitrary restrictions sowed the seed of that 
discontent which agitated the people for so many years, 
and finally culminated in open rebellion. 

These patroons were petty sovereigns in their own 
right — feudal lords of the soil — possessing complete juris- 
diction over their tenants, who were forbidden to leave 
their service for a stipulated time. They also had 
authority to appoint local officers in all cities whifch they 
might estabhsh, and were endowed with manorial privi- 
leges of hunting, fishing and fowling on all lands within 
their domain. This tempting offer at once excited the 
cupidity and love of power of the merchants of the 
West India Company, and no sooner was the act passed 
than a number hastened to comply with its requirements. 
Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, both of whom 
were directors of the West India Company, dispatched 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 57 

agents to New Netherlaad, who piu^cliased of the Indians 
two tracts of land ; the one extending from Cape Henlo- 
pen thirty-two miles up the west shore of Delaware Bay ; 
and the other, a piece of land sixteen miles square on the 
opposite shore, including Cape May, to which they gave 
the name of Swaanendael. Soon after, the agents of 
Killian Van Rensselaer, another director of the Company, 
purchased in his name the lands above and below Fort 
Orange, including the present counties of Albany and 
Rensselaer, to which they gave the name of Rensselaers- 
wyck. Another director, Michael Pauw, appropriated a 
tract of land on the Jersey shore opposite to Manhattan, 
including Paulus Hook, Hoboken, and the adjacent 
country, to which he gave the name of Pavonia. To 
this purchase he soon after added that of Staten Island. 

This wholesale appropriation of the province excited 
the jealousy of the other directors. Loud murmurs of 
discontent arose among the Company, and the grasping 
patroons were forced to admit their colleagues to share in 
their domains. Companies were formed for the proposed 
.scheme of colonization, and David Pietersen de Vries, 
A^ho had become one of the patroons of Swaanendael in 
the new arrangement, proceeded thither with a colony of 
thirty persons, which he established at Hoarkill near the 
present site of Lewiston. Colonies were also established 
about the same time at Rensselaerswyck and Pavonia. 

The settlement at Fort Amsterdam, meanwhile, con- 
tinued to flourish. Not only was it the chief depot of 
the fur trade, but also of the coast trade of the patroons, 
who were obliged to bring thither all thfeir cargoes. In 
1629 and 1630, the imports from Amsterdam amounted 



58 niSTOKYOFTHE 

to one hundred and thirteen thousand guilders, while the 
exports from Manhattan exceeded one hundred and 
thirty thousand. The people were turning their atten- 
tion to ship-building, in humble imitation of the Father- 
land, and at this early date, New Amsterdam was the 
commercial metropolis of America. It fiiirly won the 
title in 1631 by the construction of the New Netherland, 
a ship of eight hundred tons, which was built at Man- 
hattan and dispatched to Holland. This was an impor- 
tant event in the ship-building annals of the times, for 
the New Netherland was one of the largest merchant 
vessels in the world. But the experiment was a costly 
one, and was not soon repeated. The land about the 
fort was fast being brought under cultivation, and, under 
the management of the industrious Walloons, a thriving 
settlement was springing up on the Brooklyn shore, and 
gradually extending back upon Long Island. Emigrants 
of all nations were beginning to flock into the province, 
allured by the liberal offers of the Company, who trans- 
ported them thither in their own ships at the cheap rate 
of twelve and a half cents a day for provisions and pas- 
sage, and gave them as much land as they could cultivate 
on their arrival. Unlike the policy of the Colony of 
Massachusetts, the fullest religious toleration was granted 
in the province, and this attracted many victims of the 
persecution which was raging so fiercely in Europe. Wal- 
loons, Huguenots, Calvinists, Friends and Catholics, all 
found a home here, and laid (he foundation of that 
cosmopolitan character which the city has since so well 
sustained. 

Yot the colony was chiefly of the Dutch type. The 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 59 

simple aud frugal settlers had imported the manners and 
customs of Holland along with its houses and furniture, 
and these for many years imparted a marked individual- 
ity to the growing city. To the north and south, the 
settlements were essentially English ; for a long time, 
New Amsterdam and its successor, New York, remained 
essentially Dutch. Yet these Holland manners and cus- 
toms were becoming greatly modified by the exigencies 
of the new country. The settlers were gradually adopt- 
ing something of the mode of life of their savage allies ; 
already had they learned to relish the Indian luxuries of 
succotash and liominy, and to welcome to their tables 
the game, shell-fish, fruits and berries which the island 
afforded in such profusion ; nor did the tobacco find less 
favor among them. The wampum had come to be a com- 
mon currency in the settlement. Much of the Indian 
life was already clinging to them ; though in thought and 
feeling they still belonged to the Old World, and looked 
fondly back to Holland as their true fatherland. 

At this juncture, a heavy calamity fell upon the infant 
colony which had been planted by De Vries at Swaanen- 
dael. According to custom, a tin plate, bearing the 
arms of Holland, had been affixed to a tree, in token of 
the sovereignty of the nation. Attracted by the glitter 
of the metal, and thinking no harm, a chief took it down 
to make it into tobacco pipes. This proceeding, Hossett, 
who had charge of the place, imprudently resented as an 
insult, and the natives, to appease him, slew the offender 
and brought him his right hand as a token of a ven- 
geance of which the Dutch commander had never 
dreamed. But it was now too late. A few days after, 



60 HISTORY OFTHE 

the friends of the murdered chieftain fell upon the 
settlers as they were at work in the fields, slew them 
without mercy, burned the fort and laid waste the whole 
settlement. Thirty-two colonists were massacred in cold 
blood — not one escaped to tell the tale. It was from the 
Indian chiefs themselves that De Vries heard the details 
of the horrible catastrophe on his arrival. The colony 
at Rensselaerswyck meanwhile continued to prosper. 

The directors of the West India Companj' had hoped, 
by the aid of the patroons, to succeed in colonizing the 
country, and, at the same time, to retain the rich mono- 
poly of the fur trade in their own hands. In this they met 
with serious opposition. The patroons, who had grown 
powerful through their extensive privileges, interfered 
with the traffic to such an extent that the directors 
resolved to limit their authority and to break their 
power. This procedure excited almost a civil war in 
the Company. By the provisions of the charter, the 
patroons were obliged also to be members of the associa- 
tion, and the Company was thus divided against itself 
A warm dispute arose, and in 1632, Peter Minuit, who 
was suspected of favoring the pretensions of the patroons, 
was recalled from the directorship, although no suc- 
cessor was appointed for more than a year. At the 
same time, Jan Lampo, the schout fiscal, was super- 
seded by Conrad Notelman, who had brought the letters 
of recall. Minuit at once resigned the government into 
the hands of the council, and embarked for Holland in 
the ship Eendragt, which had brought the news of 
his dismissal, accompanied by the ex-schout and several 
families of returning colonists. The Eendragt also car- 



CITTOFNEWYORK. 61 

ried witli her a cargo of five thousand beaver skins — a 
token of the growing prosperity of the colony. 

On her return, the ship was forced by stress of 
weather into the harbor of Plymouth, where she was 
detained by the authorities as an illegal trafficker in 
English monopohes. Minuit instantly dispatched news 
of this proceeding to the Company, and also to the Dutch 
ambassadors at London, who remonstrated with the 
English government. The arrest of the Dutch trader 
led to a correspondence between the two countries, in 
which the claims of the rival powers were distinctly set 
forth. These claims, which formed the basis of contin- 
ual agitations as long as the province remained in the 
hands of its Dutch proprietors, ai-e too important in their 
connection with the history as well of the city as of the 
whole country, not to find a place here. 

The Dutch claimed the proprietorship of the province 
on the grounds of its discovery by their nation in 1609 ; 
of the return of their people in 1610 ; of the grant of a 
trading charter in 1614 ; of the maintenance of a fort 
and garrison until the organization of the West India 
Company in 1621 ; of the failure of the English to 
occupy the territory ; and of the purchase of the land 
from its original owners, the natives. The English, on the 
other hand, laid claim to it on the ground of the prior 
discovery of Cabot, and declared it to be the property of 
the Plymouth Company, by virtue of a patent granted 
by James I., its lawful sovereign. As to the purchase of 
the land from the natives, they alleged that the wan- 
dering and communistic Indians, not being the bona fide 
possessors of the land, had no right to dispose of it, and 



62 CITYOF NEW YORK. 

therefore, that all Indian titles must be invalid — a theory 
which they had certainly done their best to reduce to 
practice. They offered to permit the Dutch to remain 
in New Netherland, provided they would swear alle- 
giance to the English government ; otherwise they were 
threatened with instant extirpation. But civQ war was 
now on the eve of breaking out in England, and the 
authorities were ill prepared to put their threat into exe- 
cution. Contenting themselves with this assumption of 
sovereignty, they released the Eendragt, and reserved 
ine accomplishment of their designs for a more con- 
venient season. 



CHAPTER II, 



New Amsterdam in the Days of Wouter Van Twiller— English Diffionlties— Wiine.'iB 
ICieft. 

During the interregnum which succeeded the departure 
of Minuit, the governinent was administered by the 
council, headed by Koopman Van Remund, the succes- 
sor of Isaac de Rasieres. In April, 1G33, the ship Sout- 
berg arrived at Manhattan, bringing Wouter Van 
TwiUer, the new director-general, with a military force 
of a hundred and four soldiers, and a Spanish caraval 
which she had captured on the way. Among the pas- 
sengers came also Everardus Bogardus and Adam 
Roelandsen, the first clergyman * and schoolmaster of 
New Amsterdam. 

* The reader is referred to the aroliivcs of the Historical Society for a curious lettei, 
transmitted tliereto by tlie Hon. Ik-nry C. Murphy, ex-United States Minister at the 
Hague, bearing date the 11th of Angust, 1628, and purporting to have been 
iddressed by Jonas Michaelius, first Minister of the Church of New Amsterdam, 
to Domine Adriauus Sraoutius, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Amster- 
1am. This letter, of the authenticity of which Mr. Murphy expresses himself 
strongly persuaded, was found among the papers of Jacobus Koning, clerk of the 
fourth judicial district of Amsterdam, and communicated to the Kerk-historisch 
Archief by J. J. Bodel Xijenhaus, Esq. Of its previous history, nothing whatever 
is known. In the records of the Classis of Amsterdam of a later date, Domine 
Michaelius is mentioned as the late minister of Virginia ; and the fact that the Dutch 



64 HISTORYOFTHE 

A weaker, more vacillating or thoroughly iucompe- 
teiit governor could hardly have been selected than 
Wouter Van Twiller. He had married the niece of the 
wealthy patroon, Killian Van Rensselaer, and it was 
probably in consequence of this connection that he had 
succeeded in obtaining this important post. He had 
been employed as a clerk in the Company's warehouse, 
and had done them good service in this capacity ; but 
knowing nothing at all of the science of government, 
and ignorant of everything except of money-making, he 
soon became ridiculous in his new position. 

Immediately upon his arrival. Van Twiller assumed 
the direction of affairs, and organized his council. This 
council consisted of Jacob Jansen Hesse, Mai-tin Gerrit- 
sen, Andries Hudde, and Jacques Bentyn. Cornelius 
Van Tienhoven was made book-keeper of the Company, 

language was unknown in Virginia proper, coupled with the general custom of 
bestowing this appellation indiscriminately upon all portions of the western world, 
affords strong presumptive proof of the genuineness of the letter. If it be really 
authentic, it is, with the exception of Isaac de Rasieres' letters to Governor Brad- 
ford and to Mr. Blommaert of Amsterdam, the only letter now extant written hj 
the pioneers of New Amsterdam. The history of Michaelius is full of adventure. 
Born in 1577 in North Holland and educated at the University of Leyden, he 
settled in 1614 at Nieuwbokswouden, whence he, two years afterwards, removed 
to Havre. On the capture of St Salvador by the Dutch in 1624, he was dispatched 
thither to preside over the church of the victors. The next year, the island fell 
again into the hands of the Portuguese, and Michailius, abandoning his charge, set 
out on a missionary expedition to Guinea. In 1627, he returned to Holland, and 
soon after, if we may rely on this letter, made his way to New Amsterdam, to enact 
the part of the religious pioneer which historians have hitherto agreed in assigning 
to Bogardus. He probably did not remain long in the province. The next trace 
(if him appears in 1637 or 3S, when it was proposed by the Classis to send him again 
10 New Amsterdam ; but the request was refused by the West India Company, pro- 
bably on account of his advanced age. The letter in question is quaint and curious, 
and gives a graphic picture of the primitive life of the early settlers 



CITY OB' NEW YORK. 81 

found a new colony under his own direction. TVitli tliis 
design, he proceeded to Stockholm, and, gaining access 
to Q,ueen Christina, described -the new country to her in 
such glowing language that she at once became anxious 
to secure a portion of it for Sweden. The project, 
indeed, was not a new one ; it had previously been pro- 
posed to Gustavus Adolphus by William Usselincx, the 
original projector of the Dutch West India Company, 
who had favored the undertaking ; but ere it could be 
carried into effect, Sweden's greatest monarch had found 
his death on the field of Liitzen. It remained for his 
daughter, aided by the counsels of the able Oxenstiern, 
to carry out his project, and to secure a foothold for 
Sweden in the New World. By her command, the 
Key of Calmar man-of-war, and a tender called the 
Griffin, were fitted out with goods suitable for traffic with 
the Indians, a Lutheran clergyman and some fifty emi- 
grants were embarked, and the expedition was placed 
under Minuit's direction. Steering directly for the 
Virginian coast, he touched at Jamestown for wood 
and water ; then, proceeding to Delaware Bay, he pur- 
chased all the territory on the west side of the river 
from Cape Henlopen to Trenton Falls, with an indefinite 
extent inland, of the sachem of the country, for the con- 
sideration of a kettle and a few trifles, and, taking pos- 
session of the country in the name of Sweden, erected a 
trading-post which he called Fort Christina. This was 
situated near the site of the present Wilmington, and 
was the first settlement within the State of Delaware. 

On learning of this new encroachment, Kieft imme- 
diately served a protest on the intruders, claiming the 
6 



82 HISTOKTOFTHE 

territory as the property of the West India Company, 
and declaring that he would not be answerable for the 
consequences which might result from their illegal occu- 
pation. Finding his remonstrances disregarded, he 
applied for instructions to the Amsterdam Chamber. But, 
at this time, Sweden was one of the most powerful of 
the European kingdoms ; the States General, unwilling 
to embroil themselves with so dangerous a neighbor, 
deemed it expedient not to pursue the matter further, 
and the Swedes were permitted to continue their traffic 
under protest. 

Soon after this occurrence, a measure was adopted by 
the Company which proved of vital importance to the 
interests of the colony. Hitherto, their efforts at coloniz- 
ation had proved futile, and the patroon system had 
resulted in a total failure. For the encouragement of 
individual enterprise, a new charter of privileges was 
granted, limiting patroonships to four miles of frontage 
on navigable rivers with eight miles inland ; granting to 
every person who should transport himself and Jive 
others to the province at his own cost, two hundred 
acres of land ; and conferring on all villages and cities 
which should hereafter be founded, the right of choosing 
their own magistrates. The monopoly of the Indian 
trade was relinquished in consideration of a moderate 
duty, the Company only retaining the exclusive right of 
transportation to and from the colony. They offered a 
free passage, however, to all respectable farmers, with 
as much land as they could cultivate on their arrival, 
subject to a quit-rent of a tenth of the produce. The} 
also pledged themselves to provide ministers, school- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 83 

luasters, aud "comforters for the sick;" and renewed 
thtii promise to supply tlie cofoiiists witli negroes. The 
prohibition against making cloths was also repealed. The 
Reformed Dutch Religion was declared the established 
faith of tbo prov'ince, though the fullest toleration was 
granted to all other sects. No distinction was made 
between foreigners and Hollanders, the only obligation 
imposed on tht former being an oath of fidelity to the 
Dutch governmeivt 

Allured by these Uberal offers, numerous w^ealthy emi- 
grants soon flocked Iwvo the colony. In 1639, De Vries 
returned to ManhattAr with a party of colonists, and 
erected some buildingiji and began a colony on Staten 
Island. In the course oJ' the same year, Jochem Pieter- 
sen Kuyter and Cornells Melyn, both men of means and 
influence, arrived with a nuBiber of emigrants at New 
Amsterdam, where they soon became prominent mem- 
bers of the colony. Some English iudentui-ed servants, 
who had served out their time in Virginia, came also to 
Manhattan, where they carried on the cultivation of 
tobacco, and introduced cherry and peach-trees which 
had hitherto been unknown in the settlement. Attracted 
by the greater religious freedom in the province, several 
valuable settlers came in from New England, among 
whom was Captaui John Underbill, who had distin- 
guished himself in the Pequod war, and had afterwards 
become Governor of Dover. The strangers were cor- 
dially welcomed, and at once inducted into all the privi- 
leges of citizenship, and they soon grew warmly attached 
to the interests of their adopted city. The island was 
fast losing its savage aspect, full thirty farms and planta- 



84 HISTORY OFTHE 

ticns were in thrifty cultivation, and the country outside 
the walls of the fort resembled a blooming garden. 

The land in the vicinity of Manhattan, both on the 
Long Island and Jersey shores, and northward on the 
mainland, was fast being brought under cultivation. In 
the summer of 1638, Kieft had purchased for the Com- 
pany a large tract of land on Long Island in the vicinity 
of the present Newtown, and commenced the settlement 
of the country adjacent to the AYaal-bogt. In the fol- 
lowing summer, Antonie Jansen de Rapelje, the brother 
of the founder of the Walloon settlement, obtained a 
ga-ant of a hundred morgens, or nearly two hundred 
acres of land, opposite Coney Island, and commenced the 
settlement of Gravesend. Rapelje, or Jansen, as he was 
commonly called, was a man of prodigious streng-th and 
stature, and was reputed by many to be a Moor by 
birth, a circumstance probably owing to his adjunct 
of De Salee, under which name his patent was granted, 
and by which he was often known. This report, how- 
ever, was without foundation ; he was a native Walloon, 
and the suffix to his name was probably derived from 
the river Saale in France, and not from Salee in 
Morocco. For many years after the Dutch dynasty had 
passed away, his farm at Gravesend continued to be 
known as Anthony Jansen's Bouwery.* Thomas Belcher, 

* William Jansen de Rapelje, the third brother of this family, distinguished as hav- 
ing been among the earliest settlers of Long Island, and the founders of the present 
city of Brooklyn, settled at New Amsterdam, where he died without children. By a 
curious caprice, the descendants of Antonie have discarded the name of Rapelje, 
retaining that of Jansen, or Johnson as they are more commonly called ; while 
the familv of George have dropped the Jansen, and are known by the name of 
Rapelje or Rapelyea, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 85 

an Englishman, soon after obtained a tract of land at 
Brooklyn, and George Holmes and Thomas Hall, the 
leaders of the unsuccessful Virginian expedition against 
Fort Nassau, who had now become residents of Man- 
hattan, obtained farms near Deutel's, now Turtle Bay on 
the East River. In the spring of 1640, Kieft purchased 
of the Indians in behalf of the Company, all the territory 
comprised within the present hmits of Kings and Queens 
Counties which was not already in their possession. De 
Vries soon after established another colony at Tappan 
on lands which he had previously purchased of the 
Indians, to which he gave the name of Vriesendael. 
The following year, another colony was established 
within an hour's walk of the former by Myndert Vander 
Voorst in the valley of the Hackensack River; and 
about the same time, Cornells Melyn obtained a grant 
from the Amsterdam Chamber for all that part of Staten 
Island which was not already occupied by De Vries. 
Previously to this, Kieft had established a distillery and 
buckskin manufactory there on his own account, and had 
stationed a few soldiers in a small redoubt on one of the 
headlands, with orders to signal to the garrison in the 
fort the arrival of vessels in the lower bay. 

The English, meanwhile, continued their encroach- 
ments upon the territory of the Connecticut, and had 
almost succeeded in forcing the Dutch from Fort Good 
Hope, the only foothold which they possessed in that 
region. Not content with this, they next attempted to 
gain possession of Long Island also. In 1635, Lord 
Stirling had obtained a grant from the Plymouth Coun- 
cil of a part of New England, together with Long Island ; 



86 HISTOKYOFTHE 

and dispatclieJ James Farrett thitlier as Lis proxy, 
granting Lini sixteen thousand aci'es for his own use. 
Farrett selected Shelter and Robins' Islands in Peconic 
Bay, and granted Gardiner's Island to Lyon Gardiner, 
the first settler of the region. Shelter Island was after- 
wards conveyed to Captain Nathaniel Silvester and 
Ensign John Booth, who, March 23, 1652, strengthened 
their title by purchasing it of the Sachem Yokee.* It 
was subsequently sold to Lyon Gardiner. Under a title 
from Farrett, a party from Lynn attempted to settle on 
the lands claimed by the Dutch neai- Manhassett, but were 
speedily aiTested by au armed force fi'Oin the fort and 
carried to Manhattan, then sent back to New England. 
They returned in 1640, and settled at Southampton. 
In the same year, the neighboring town of Southold 
v/as settled by a company of immigrants from Norfolk- 
shire, England, who secured the lands in the vicinit}- 
of Yiunicock, now Greenport. But these distant set- 

* The deed of purchase is recorded in Liber A., p. 74, of Records of South- 
old, L. I., and is still in possession of the family. This interesting specimen 
of an Indian title is worth transcribing : 

" We, whose names are hereunderneath subscribed, doe freely testify and 
declare that T" Kee, formerly Sachem of Munghunsick Aququatunasmack, 
now called Sheltered Island, did on the three and twentieth of March, 1G53, 
give full possession unto Capt. Nathaniel Silvester and Ensign John Booth 
of the aforesaid Island of Aququatunasmack, with all that was belonging to 
the same, and he, the said Tokee, delivered unto the aforesaid Capt. Nathan- 
iel Silvester and Ensign John Booth * * * according to the usual custom of 
England, after which delivering and full possession given, the said Yokee 
* * * foi-mally leaving the said Island of Aququatunasmack, did freely and 
willingly depart the aforesaid Island, leaving the aforesaid Capt. Nathaniel 
Silvester and Ensign John Booth in full possession of the same, unto which 
we witness our hands, the date as above being the 23d of March, 1652. 
" John Hebbekt. Robert Seelt, D.^^xiel Lane, Giles Silvester. 

" Recorded the 28tli of January. IGlil, by me, WiLLlAii Wells, Recorder." 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 87 

tlements scarcely troubled the Dutch authorities, who, 
content with maintaining their claim to the western 
part of the island, suffered the eastern colonists to 
remain in peace. In 1648, another party of colonists 
from Lynn took possession of the easternmost part of the 
island, and founded the town of Basthampton. With the 
exception of a small colony that was founded at 
Setauket, on the north side of the island, in 1655, these 
were the only English settlements that were made on 
Long Island during the rule of the Dutch dynasty. 

The Swedes, meanwhile, had continued to carry on 
a flourishing trade with the Indians in the neighborhood 
of Fort Christina. In the beginning, they experienced 
hardships and privations ; at one time, indeed, rendered 
desperate by famine, they were on the point of breaking 
up their little settlement and removing to Manhattan, 
where Kieft had promised them a cordial reception. 
Fortunately, the day before the projected emigration, a 
ship laden with colonists and supplies appeared in the 
river. Others soon followed, and the colony rapidly 
increased. In 1641, Peter Minuit died, and was buried 
at Fort Christina. Peter HoUendaere, a Swede, suc- 
ceeded him in the command. 

But the success of these Swedish colonists on the 
South River was too marked not to excite the cupidity 
of the New Englanders. In 1640, a bark was fitted out 
at New Haven by a merchant (George Lamberton), and 
dispatched with some fifty families to the shores of the 
Delaware to found a settlement. On the way, they 
touched at Manhattan, where they were warned by Kieft 
to desist from all enterprises in that quarter. Disregard- 



88 HISTORY OFTHE 

ing his injunctions, they proceeded on their way, and 
estabUshed themselves, a part on Salem Creek, and the 
rest on the Schuylkill. Enraged at this interference 
with the Dutch trade, Kieft fitted out two yachts with 
a force of fifty men to dislodge the intruders ; but 
trouble breaking out among the Indians on Staten Island, 
he was forced for the time to abandon the enterprise. 
In the following year, he dispatched an expedition, 
which, seconded by the Swedes, broke up both the 
settlements, and brought back the English with their 
goods to Fort Amsterdam, whence they were sent back 
to New Haven. Lamberton, who persisted in trading at 
the South River, was soon after arrested and brought to 
Manhattan, where he was compelled to pay full duties 
on his cargo. The English demanded satisfaction for 
the damages done their people, which they estimated at 
a thousand pounds, but Kieft boldly justified his con- 
duct, and refused to accede to their demand. The con- 
troversy continued, and the English annoyed their neigh- 
bors so greatly that Kieft proclaimed a non-intercourse 
with the colony of Connecticut. This state of affairs 
proving embarrassing, the colonists soon opened a nego- 
tiation with Kieft for the purchase of the territory about 
the Dutch post ; and this failing, both parties appealed 
to their respective powers in England and Holland for a 
redress of their grievances. But civil war was now rag- 
ing in England between the king and the parHament, 
and though a correspondence was opened between the 
two governments, the settlement of the question was de- 
ferred till a more convenient season. Meanwhile, the Eng- 
lish persisted in their design of crowding out the Dutch 



CITY OF NEW \ YORK 



89 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 91 

from a territor}' which indubitably belonged to them, 
both by right of discovery and that of first possession. 

The settlement at Fort Amsterdam — the embryo New 
York — continued to increase in numbers and prosperity. 
Among the late accessions were many men of wealth 
and public spirit, who were ambitious for the advance- 
ment of the colony. The settlement was growing into 
respectable proportions. A few brick and stone houses 
had been erected for the accommodation of the governor 
and officials, but the greater part were unpretending 
little cottages, with thatched roofs and wooden chimneys, 
standing with the gable end to the street. Until 1642, 
city lots and streets were unknown ; the settlers chose 
land wherever it was most convenient for them, and 
being gregarious in habits, streets were formed almost 
by instinct. This fact accounts reasonably enough for 
the crooked ways of the lower part of our metropolis. 
Two roads leading from the fort towards the northern 
part of the island had been formed by common consent ; 
the one, afterwards known as the Boston or Old Post 
Road, leading from the fort up the line of Broadway to the 
end of the Park, then winding round through Chatham, 
Duane, William and Pearl streets to avoid a steep hill 
with a brook at the foot at Roosevelt street, and continu- 
ing its course up tlie line of the Bowery ; the other, 
extending from the fort through Stone street to Hanover 
Square, and thence along the river shore to the ferry, 
where the ferryman, Cornelis Dircksen, who owned 
a farm hard by, came at the sound of the horn that 
hung against a tree, and ferried the waiting passen- 
ger across the river in his little skiff for the moderate 



92 HISTORYOFTHE 

charge of three stivers in wampum. This ferry, in the 
earUest days of the city, was estabhshed between the 
nearest points of contact of the opposite shores, that is, 
from the vicinity of Peck Slip to a point a Uttle below 
*he Fulton ferry landing at Brooklyn. 

At this time, and for many years after, Pearl street 
formed the edge of the river. It is at no very distant 
date, indeed, that Water, Front and South streets have 
been reclaimed from their river beds and made to do 
their duty as a stanch support to commerce. From the 
old yellow house — one of the last relics of the past — 
standing until 1867 on the corner of Peck Shp and 
Water street, one could easily throw stones into the 
river which flowed through Water street at the time of 
its erection. In the days of Wilhelm Kicft, ihis street 
was selected as the site of the up-town residences of the 
wealthy burghers on account of its fine river prospect. 
The fei-ryman Dircksen owned the land directly oppo- 
site the ferry ; the tract above of thirty-three acres, 
extending up to the vicinity of Franklin Square, was 
owned by Henry Bressar. Above this lay Wolfert's 
Marsh, the property of Wolfert Van Couwenhoven, 
covering the Roosevelt street district. Between the 
lands of Dircksen, and Wall street, which formed the 
northern boundary of the city, the lands along the line 
of the street were owned by David Provoost, Philip de 
Truy, Cornells Van Tienhoven, Laurens Vanderwel, and 
Govert Loockermans, the most of whom were agents in 
the Company's employ. On the west side of Broadway, 
above the graveyard, stood the country seats of Messrs. 
Vandiegrist and Van Dyck. But the most of the houses 



CITT OF NEW TOKK 



93 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 95 

were clustered at the lower end of the town about the 
walls of the fort. In Whitehall street, stood the parson- 
age, with its garden of variegated tulips intersected by 
plain alleys of clipped box and cedars. In close proxim- 
ity stood the bakery, brewery, and warehouse of the 
Company. In South William near Pearl street was the 
old horsemill, erected by Minuit, and since superseded 
by the windmills of Van Twiller. One of these stood on 
State street, the most ^^rominent object in the city as 
seen from the river. Tlie fort itself was bounded by the 
BowUng Green, Bridge, Whitehall and State streets. 
The former was known as "the plain," and was a valu- 
able institution, both in peace and war. It was the vil- 
lage green, where the people erected their May poles, 
and danced on holidays ; it served also as the parade 
ground of the soldiers of the fort, and more than once, 
had it witnessed the departure of a warlike expedition. 
Pearl street was probably the street first occupied — the 
oldest in the annals of the city ; the first houses were 
built on it in 1633. Bridge street came next in order, 
and a deed is still on record whereby Abraham Van 
Steenwyck sells to Anthony Van Fees a lot on this street, 
thirty feet front by one hundred and ten feet deep, for 
the sum of twenty-four guilders, or nine dollars and sixty 
cents — the earliest conveyance of property now on record 
in this city. Whitehall, Stone, Broad, Beaver and Market- 
field streets were built on soon after. In 1640, the first 
grant of a city lot east of the fort was made near Smit's 
Vly to Ph. de True. The following year, several grants 
of lots on the lower end of Broadway, or Heere Straat 
as it was then called, were made to diif ei'eut individuals. 



96 HISTORY OFTUE 

Martin Krigier was the first grantee of a lot on this street, 
o^jposite the Bowling Green, containing about eighty-six 
rods. On this he built the well-known " Krigier's 
Tavern," which soon became a place of fashionable 
resort. Upon its demolition, the " King's Arms Tavei'n " 
was erected in its stead. This afterwards became the 
head-quarters of General Gage, the commandant of the 
fort and commander-in-chief of the British forces at the 
breaking out of the Revolution. Transformed into the 
Atlantic Gardens, No. 9 Broadway, it remained stand- 
ing, one of the few relics of the olden time ; the more 
remarkable for being but the second structure that has 
occupied the site since the foundation of the city. Other 
grantees soon purchased lots, and streets became fixed 
facts in the lower part of the city, though no systematic 
eflbrt was made for their regulation until after the arrival 
of Stuyvesant. The price of lots averaged at about 
fourteen dollars ; they were laid out in uneven figures to 
suit tiie course of the streets, containing from thirty to a 
hundred and twenty-five feet, according to the location. 

In 1641, Kieft instituted two annual fairs for the 
encouragement of agriculture, the first for cattle, to be 
held on the 15th of October, and the second for hogs, to 
be held on the 1st of November, upon the Bowling 
Green. This opened the way for another inprove- 
ment. As yet, no tavern had been erected within 
the settlement for the accommodation of strangers, 
and the numerous visitors from the New England 
colonies as well as from the interior were compelled 
to avail themselves of the hospitalities of the director. 
The fairs swelled the number, and Kieft, finding the tax 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



97 



becoming a heavy one, in 1G42 erected a large ^slone 
tavern at the Company's expense for their accommoda- 
tion. This tavern was situated on the east shore of the 
river, near the present Coenties Shp, and was afterwards 
transformed into a citj- hall or Stadt huys. 







■• stadt Huys," at Coenties Slip 



The chiirch which had been built by Van Twiller, and 
which was but a barn at best, was becoming dilapidated, 
and several of the settlers, headed by De Yries, urged 
the erection of a new one. " It was a shame," they said, 
" that the English, Avho had such fine churches in their 
"settlements, should see them worshipping in a mean 
"barn, when they had jjlenty of fine wood and stone 
"and oyster-shells for lime at their very doors." It is 
more proljalile that they feared an attack from the 
Indians in the old structure outside the walls of the fort, 
7 



98 HISTORYOFTlfF 

Hut this they did not choose to assign as their motive. 
The governor consented, and proposed, doubtless for the 
same reason, that the church shoukl be erected within 
the walls of the fort. To this arrangement, many 
demurred. They objected that the fort was already 
crowded with buildings, and that the church would in- 
tercept the southeast wind and obstruct the working of 
the windmill on the shore of the North River ; but the 
director remained firm, and the site was finally agreed 
upon. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, and Jan Jansen 
Damen, with De Vries and Kieft, were appointed " kirke- 
meesters," to superintend the building of the edifice, and 
nothing was wanting but the necessary funds. 

How to obtain them was the question. Kieft, on his 
part, promised to advance a thousand guilders on the 
Company's account, and De Vries headed a private sub- 
scription-list with a hundred more, but this was not 
nearly sufiicient, and the citizens were not in a liberal 
humor. A little management extricated the projectors 
from their difficulty. At this juncture, a daughter of Do- 
mine Bogardus was opportunely married. The principal 
citizens were invited to the wedding, the wine circulated 
freely, and all were merry. When the festivity had 
reached its height, the subscription paper was produced, 
and the excited guests vied with each other in the 
amount of their donations. There were some the next 
morning who would fain have recalled their reckless 
liberality ; but repentance availed them nothing, the 
money was subscribed, and the work went on. 

A contract was made with John and Richard Ogden 
of Stamford for the mason-work of a church of rock- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 99 

stone, seventy-two feet long, fifty-two wide and sixteen 
high, at a cost of twenty-five hundred guilders, with a 
bonus of a hundred more, should the work prove satis- 
factory. The roof was covered with split oaken shingles, 
then called wooden slates. In the front wall was 
inserted a marble slab with the inscription, " Ao. Do. 
"MDCXLII. W. Kieft Dr. Gr. Heeft de Gemeente dese 
" Tempel doen Bouwen ;" which, being translated, gives 
the somewhat equivocal sentence, "Anno Domini, 1642, 
" Wilhelm Kieft, Director-General, hath the Common- 
" alty caused to build this Temple." When the fort was 
demolished in 1787 to make room for the Government 
House, the stone was discovered, buried in the earth, 
and was removed to the belfry of the old Dutch Church 
in Garden street, where it remained until both were 
destroyed in the conflagration of 1835. The church was 
styled the St. Nicholas, in honor of the tutelary saint of 
New Amsterdam. The town bell was removed to the 
belfry, whence it regulated all the affairs of the city ; 
ringing time for laborers, summoning courts of justice, 
ringing merry peals for weddings, tolling out funeral 
knells, and calling the people on Sundays to their devo- 
tions. 

Better order, too, was beginning to be observed in the 
colony. The director had succeeded in part in enforcing 
his laws, and in restraining contraband trade ; as well as 
in checking the importation of bad wampum into the 
colony, which had been a source of serious annoyance 
to the settlers, by reducing its value from four' to six 
beads for a stuyver. This wampum, or seawant, as it 
was properly called, merits a more extended notice than 



100 HISTORYOFTHE 

has hitherto been given it. It was of two kinds, the 
wampum or white, and the suckanhock sucki, or black 
seawant — the former being made from the stem of the 
periwinkle, and the latter from the purple coating of the 
hard clam. These were rounded and polished into 
beads, and pierced with sharp stones, then strung upon 
the sinews of animals, and woven into belts of different 
sizes. The black beads were accounted twice as valuable 
as the white, the latter being made the standard of 
valuation. A string a fathom long was worth about four 
guilders. Although seawant was the generic name of 
the currency, the wampum, strictly speaking, being only 
the white beads, among the Dutch and English the lat- 
ter name was universally applied to it. The best was 
manufactured on Long Island, called by the aborigines 
Sewanhack}', or the Isle of Shells. The seawant of the 
Iroquois and New England Indians was inferior in 
quality, and rough and badly strung. Indeed, it seems 
to have been unknown among the New England tribes 
before 1627, when Isaac de Rasi^res, the koopman of 
New Amsterdam, when on an embassy to Plymouth, 
purchased corn with it from the English settlers. Find- 
ing it convenient as a circulating medium, the Indians 
soon learned the art of its manufecture, and it was not 
long before the cunning New Englanders succeeded in 
draining New Netherland of its finely polished seawant in 
payment for their goods, and introducing large quantities 
of their imperfect beads in turn. Nor was this all ; 
beads 6f porcelain were manufactured in Europe and put 
into circulation among the colonists, and the evil grew 
so alarming that, in 1641, the council published an ordi- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 10] 

nance \pith the sanction of Kieft, declaring that "a 
great deal of bad seawant, imported from other places, 
was in circulation, while the good, splendid sewant, 
usually called Manhattans sewant, was out of sight oi 
exported, which must cause the ruin of the country.'" 
To remedy this evil, the ordinance provided that in future 
all coarse seawant, well stringed, should pass at six for 
one stuy ver ; while the well polished should be valued at 
four for a stuyver. This ordinance is the first on record 
for the regulation of the exportation of specie in the 
colony. In 1657, tliey were again reduced from six to 
eight for a stuyver. 

About this time, too, the increasing intercourse with 
the English settlements rendei'ed it necessary that some 
provision should be made in respect to coiTespondence 
in the English language. Dutch was of course the lan- 
guage of the settlement ; Kieft knew something of Eng- 
lish, but his officers were ignorant of it, and this was 
often embarrassing. It was therefore resolved that an 
English secretary was indispensable ; George Baxter 
was appointed to the office, with an annual salary of two 
hundred and fifty guilders ; and the English language was 
thus first recognized in New Amsterdam. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Indian War— Petrns Stuyvesant — New Amsterdam becomes New York. 

A. CLOUD had long been gathering over the colony ; it 
now burst with terrific fury. At the period at which 
our chapter opens, the colonists were involved in the 
horrors of an Indian war — a war which devastated the 
little settlement, and the bloody tragedies of which were 
long perpetuated in legends and traditions. To better 
depict its rise and progress, it will be necessary to re- 
trace the events of a few years, and to glance briefly at 
the causes which had thus transformed the friendship of 
tlie natives into bitter hostility. 

For some years past, an unfriendly feeling had gradu- 
ally been springing up between the settlers and the 
Indians. The better to carry on the fur trade, the Dutch 
had separated from each other, and scattered over the 
interior of the province, where they had allured the 
natives to their houses by supplying them with liquor, 
and treating them with great familiarity ; and had bar- 
tered guns and ammunition in exchange for their furs, 
despite the laws to the contrary. The natives thus 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 103 

Ijeoame well supplied with fire-arms, and also gained i 
knowledge of the numbers and habits of the settlers 
This was especially the case with the Mohawks in the 
aeighborhood of the colony of Rensselaerswyck. In the 
vicinity of New Amsterdam, stricter regulations were 
observed, and the colonists were strictly prohibited from 
selling guns and ammunition to the Indians. This excited 
the jealousy of the river tribes, who accused the Dutch 
of partiality to their enemies. The cattle of the settlers 
often strayed into the unfenced corn-fields of their Indian 
neighbors, who revenged themoelves for the mischief by 
shooting them down. Many of the natives were at this 
time employed as house and farm servants in the colony, 
who often committed petty thefts and ran away, to 
acquaint their tribes with the domestic arrangements of 
their masters. 

In the midst of the bitter feelings which had been 
stirred up by these petty aggressions, Kieft rashly deter- 
mined to levy a tribute of corn, furs and wampum upon 
the Indians, under the pretext that the government in- 
curred heavy expenses in protecting them from their 
enemies. This excited the indignation and contempt of 
the natives, who well knew that they received no pro- 
tection from the soldiers at Fort Amsterdam. They 
coidd not understand why they should be compelled to 
support the Dutch because they had suffered them to live 
peaceably in their country. "The sachem must be a 
'• mean fellow," they said ; "he had come to live among 
" them without an invitation, and now wanted them to 
" supply him with maize for nothing.'' 

At this juncture, a party of Dutch, on their way to the 



104 



HISTORY OF TUE 




Inui;ius briuging Tribute. 



South River, landed at Stateu Island and stole some 
hogs belonging to De Yvies ; the blame of whicli was laid 
on the Raritans, a tribe on the west shore of the Hudson, 
who were also aceused of having attacked a yacht, and 
stolen a canoe from its crew. 

The impetuous Kieft resolved at once to jiuni.sh the 
offenders, and, on the 16th of July, 1640, dispatched 
Koopman Van Tienhoven with seventy men, to demand 
immediate reparation. On reaching the settlement. Van 
Tienhoven demanded the restitution of the property. 
But iiotliing; less than the blood of the natives would 



CITY OF NEW YOKE. 105 

eatisfy the men under his command. After vainly re- 
monstrating, Yan Tienhoven left them to their work o( 
destruction, and returned to the fort. The soldiers fell 
on the innocent Raritans, burned their crops, killed ten 
of their warriors, and returned to New Amsterdam, hav- 
ing lost one of their own men in the encounter. Thus 
was laid the foundation of a bloody war, which threatened 
for a time to destroy the infant colony, and which 
prudent management miglit easily have averted. 

This unprovoked outrage naturally awakened a desire 
for vengeance in the hearts of the Raritans. While await- 
ing a fitting moment, they amused the director with over- 
tures for peace ; then, suddenly falling upon the plantation 
of De Vries at Staten Island, they burned his dwelling 
and tobacco house, and killed four of his planters. 

Incensed at the consequences of his own folly, tlio 
governor determined to exterminate the whole tribe, 
and xillured the river Indians to assist him by offering 
a bounty of ten fathoms of wampum for the head of 
every Raritan, and twenty for the heads of the actual 
murderers. It was not long before Pacham, a chief of 
the Tankitekes or Haverstraw Indians, came in with the 
hand of the dead chief of the party as a token that he 
had earned the price of blood. Terrified at the power 
of their foes, the Raritans sued for peace, and hostilities 
were for a time suspended. 

But it was only to change the scene of warfare. An 
Indian never forgets an injury, and the memory of his 
uncle's murder had long been rankling in the breast of 
the Weckquaesgeek boy who had witnessed the foul deed 
in the days of Minuit. The boy had now grown into 



106 HISTORY OFTHE 

a man, ajid, according to the Indian custom, the duty 
devolved upon him of offering up a victim to the maues 
of his murdered kinsman. Twenty years had passed 
since the murder ; the Dutch, if they had ever known, 
had forgotten it; but tne memory was fresh in the mind 
of the young Indian, and a harmless old wheelwright, 
by the name of Claes Smits, who dwelt in a little house 
near Deutel's Bay, was chosen by him as the victim of 
his revenge. Stopj^ing at the house of the old man one 
day, under the pretext of bartering some beaver-skins 
for blankets, the Indian struck him dead with an axe 
while he was stooping over the chest in which he kept 
his goods, then, rifling the house, escaped with his booty. 
A judicious governor would have overlooked this 
offence, heinous as it seems, in view of the consequences. 
The stern law of Indian justice, blood for blood, had 
been satisfied, the murder could not be undone, and to 
seek to avenge it was to endanger the lives of the whole 
community. But Kieft, who thirsted for the extermina- 
tion of the Indians, refused to be satisfied with anything 
less than the blood of the offender, and demanded him 
of his tribe, who refused to give him up, saying that he 
had but avenged his kinsman after the custom of the 
nation. Upon receiving this answer, the first impulse of 
Kieft was to declare an immediate Avar. But the people 
remonstrated — scattered as they were, over the island on 
their farms and bouweries, such a proceeding menaced 
them with instant destruction ; and Kieft, perceiving 
that he would be held responsible for the consequences 
of su3h a war, reluctantly called a council of the prin- 
cipal citizens to consult together ir: the emergency. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 107 

Tliey assembled in the fort on the 28th of August, 1641, 
and formed the first public assembly that ever convened 
on the island of Manhattan. 

To this assembly, Kieft submitted these propositions : 
Whether the murder of Glaes Smits should not be 
avenged ? — Whether, in case the tribe refused to surren- 
der the murderer, the whole village should not be 
destroyed ? — In what manner and when should this be 
executed ? and by whom could it be effected ? 

The assembly at once chose "Twelve Select Men," to 
act as their representatives in this matter. These first 
representatives of the people were Jacques Bentyn, 
Maryn Adriaensen, Jan Jansen Damen, Hendrick Jan- 
sen, David Pietersen de Vries, Jacob Stoffelsen, Abram 
Molenaar, Frederick Subbertsen, Jochem Pietersen Kuy- 
ter, Gerrit Dircksen, George Rapelje, and Abram 
Planck ; all Hollanders. Of these, De Vries was chosen 
president. In answer to the propositions of Kieft, they 
replied that, while the murder of Smits ought to be 
avenged, "God and the opportunity " should be taken 
into consideration. They advised that preparations 
should be made for war, that coats of mail should be 
provided for the soldiers, and that two parties, headed 
by the director in person, should march against the 
Weckquaesgeek village in the hunting season, if they 
still refused to deliver up the murderer ; but that, in the 
meantime, every effort should be made to bring the 
affair to a peaceful termination, and to avert a war with 
the natives. De Vries, though he had been the prin- 
cipal sufferer, having witnessed the destruction of his 
colonies both at Swaanendael and at Staten Island, was 



108 HISTORY OF THE 

earnestly ojoposed to war. The Company, too, was 
averse to it, and had constantly directed the colonists to 
keep peace with tlie natives, as tliey valued tlieir own 
safety. 

These peaceful counsels did not suit the temper of the 
vengeful director. But the Twelve Men succeeded in 
postponing the war for a season, then turned their 
attention to public affairs. The number of the council 
being optional with the director, Kieft's consisted only 
of himself and La Montague, Kieft having two votes and 
Montague one. The Twelve Men demanded that the 
council should be reorganized and increased at least to 
five, that four of these should be elected by the people, 
and that judicial proceedings should only be had before 
a full board. They also demanded that the militia 
should be mustered annually, and that the Company 
should furnish half a pound of powder to each man ; 
that the people should be allowed to visit vessels arriv- 
ing from abroad, and to trade freely with neighboring 
places, subject to the duties of the Company. Besides 
this, they required that the English should be prohibited 
from selling cows and goats within the province ; and 
that a greater increase should be made in the value of 
the provincial currency. 

These bold demands irritated the director beyond 
expression: but as he could only thus gain their consent 
to the war that he so ardently desired, he consented to 
make some concessions. A complete council, he said, 
was daily expected from Holland ; he was willing, how- 
ever, that the people should choose four men, two of 
whom were to be chosen annually, who should be 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 109 

called into the council when necessary, and should 
assemble occasionally to consult upon public aflairs. The 
other demands he granted without much reluctance, 
refusing only to permit the people to visit vessels from 
abroad, or to furnish powder to the militia for practice. 
[n return, he wrung from them a reluctant consent to the 
war, and on the 18th of February, 1G42, dissolved the body. 

Having at last obtained the formal consent of the peo- 
ple to commence hostilities, Kieft dispatched a party of 
eighty men against the Weckquaesgeeks with ordei's to 
exterminate them by fire and sword. The party was 
intrusted to the command of Hendriclv Yan Dyelv, and 
accompanied by a guide who professed to know the 
country. Night set in, however, before they reache'l 
the Indian village, the guide lost his way and Van Dyck 
his temper, and the party returned, innocent of tlie death 
of a single Indian. The Wecquaesgeeks, discovering from 
the trail of the white men the danger to which they had 
been exposed, became terrified and sued for peace, pro- 
mising to deliver up the murderer of Smits — a promise, 
by the way, which they never performed. 

While these negotiations were pending, a trader made 
an Indian drunk, and stole from him a dress of beaver 
skins. On regaining his senses, the incensed savage, 
meeting De Vries, told him of the theft, and vowed to 
shoot the first white man he should meet. De Vries 
tried to dissuade him from his purpose, but in vain. A 
few days after, he shot an Englishman on Staten Island, 
and afterwards, a Dutch colonist at Newark Bay. 

The frightened sachems hastened to New Amsterdam 
and offered two hundred fathoms of wampum as an 



110 HISTORY OF THE 

indemnity for the murdei', which Kieft refused, demand- 
ing the immediate surrender of the murderer. The 
sachems pleaded that he was the son of a chief, and that 
he had gone two days' journey off, among the Tankitekes, 
whence it was impossible to retake him. " Why do you 
" sell brandy to our young men?" said they ; " they are 
"not used to it, and it makes them crazy. Even your 
"own men, who are used to it, get drunk sometimes, 
" and fight with knives. Sell no more fire-water to the 
" Indians, and you will have no moi'e murders." But 
this reasoning failed to satisfy the implacable director, 
and the sachems returned sorrowfully to Vriesendael 
with their slighted offering, while Kieft sent a messenger 
to the Tankitekes to demand the head of the fugitive. 

Before the Tankitekes had time to accede to the 
demand of the director, they were attacked by a new 
foe from an unexpected quarter. A band of Mohawks 
made a descent upon the river Indians, and, killing and 
making prisoners of many, forced them to flee from their 
homes to seek protection from the Dutch. Hundreds of 
the half naked and homeless savages fled to Manhattan 
in the depth of winter to implore shelter from their 
dreaded enemies. More than a thousand encamped at 
Pavonia. Some, crossing to Manhattan, settled at Cor- 
laer's Hook, where the more compassionate of the 
colonists supplied them with food, and counted on the 
occasion to inspire them with lasting gratitude and 
friendship for the whites. Despite the jealousies and 
hostilities which had so lately prevailed, the Indians were 
not yet estranged from the colonists. They still had a 
confidence in the superior power of the white man, and 



CITY OF NEW YOrxK. Ill 

this confidence might have been strengthened by judi- 
cious pohcy. But a different spirit prevailed in the 
councils of the director. At this time, there were two 
parties in New Amsterdam, the peace party under De 
Vries, and the war party, headed by Van Tienhoven. 
At a Shrovetide feast at the house of Jan Jansen Damen, 
when all were merry with wine, the host, with Adriaen 
sen and Planck, presented a petition drawn up by Tan 
Tienhoven to the governor, and, feigning to speak in 
the name of the Twelve Men, their colleagues, urged 
him to avenge the murder of Smits by an instant attack 
on the defenceless Indians whom God had thus delivered 
into their hands. 

The proposal chimed with the wishes of the director, 
who, drinking a toast to the success of the enterprise, 
instantly dispatched a party of men under the command 
of Sergeant Rodolf to Pavonia, and another headed by 
Maryn Adriaensen to Corlaer's Hook, to destroy the un- 
armed savages in the name of the commonalty. It was 
in vain that Domine Bogardus warned Eaeft against this 
violence, that Councillor la Montagne begged hian to 
wait until the ai'rival of the next ship from Holland, and 
that Captain De Vries declared that hostilities could not 
legally be commenced without the consent of the peo- 
ple ; for his sole reply, Kieft took De Vries aside, and 
showed him his soldiers, ready to cross over to Pavonia. 
"The order has gone forth ; it cannot be recalled," said 
he. 

At midnight, on the twenty-eighth of Febi-uaiy, 1043, 
this order was executed, and one of the most terrible 
tragedies enacted that ever disgraced the auuals of a 



112 HISTORYOFTHE 

civilized uation. The Indians, surprised in the midst of 
their slumbers, were slaughtered without resistance. 
Chief and warrior, mother and child, old and young, all 
met the same fate — all were dispatched by the muskets 
of their enemies, or driven into the river to perish there. 
Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia. So sud- 
den was the attack that they knew not who were their 
murderers, and died believing themselves slaiu by the 
Mohawks. The humane De Vries sat by the kitchen 
fire at the director's, listening mournfully to the shrieks 
of the victims that were wafted across the river from 
Pavonia, when an Indian and squaw who had escaped in 
a canoe from the scene of the massacre, rushed into the 
house to implore his protection. "The Fort Orange 
" Indians have fallen upon us ; we come to hide our- 
" selves in the fort," said they. "It is no time to hide 
" yourselves in the fort ; no Indians have done this deed," 
answered De Vries, pityingly. "It is the work of the 
" Swannekens — the Dutch." And he led them from the 
gate, and watched them until they were hid in the shel- 
ter of the forest. 

In the meantime, a similar massacre was being per- 
petrated at Corker's Hook. The party headed by 
Maryn Adriaensen, a noted freebooter, had fallen upon 
the sleeping savages, and murdered them all in cold 
blood. Dayhght ended the tragedy, and the party re- 
turned to Fort Amsterdam in triumph, with thirty 
prisoners and the heads of several of their victims, where 
they were received with joy by the director ; and with 
sorrow by the citizens, who thus saw the door opened to 
long and bloody war. On Wilhelm Kieft rests the sole 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



113 




Massacre of Imliaiis at Pavonia. 



responsibility of this atrocious deed, which was neither 
suggested nor sanctioned by the people of New Amster- 
dam. 

Stimulated by the success of their neighbors, some of 
the settlers at New Amersfoordt soon after petitioned 
for leave to attack the Indians in their vicinity. Res- 
trained by the remonstrances of Bogardus and De Vries, 
Kieft refused his consent, on the grounds that they had 
always been friendly to the Dutch, and urre hard to con- 
quer; but added that in case they should prove hostile. 



114 HISTORY OFTHE 

every man was at liberty to defend himself as best he 
could. It was not long before some demonstrations on 
the part of these Indians were construed into hostilitiee 
by the covetous settlers, and made the pretext for rob- 
bing them of their corn. The natives attempted to defend 
their property, and in the struggle lost three of their men. 
Enraged at this injustice, the Long Island Indians 
joined with the river tribes in avenging their wrongs. 
Eleven tribes banded together and proclaimed open war 
against the colonists. The retribution was terrible. The 
swamps and morasses of the island were filled with lurk- 
ing Indians, watching for opportunities to shoot down 
the colonists while at work in the fields, drive off their 
cattle, set fire to their houses, and rob, kill, and plun- 
der. The peaceful and smiUng country was quickly 
transformed into a wilderness. Men were shot down in 
broad daylight, and women and children carried into 
captivity ; fences were torn down, trees uprooted, and 
thrifty bouweries laid waste in the general ruin. The 
affrighted settlers fled within the walls of the fort, now 
their only place of safet3^ Every thicket outside con- 
cealed a foe, and no place was safe from the bullet of the 
subtile enemy. The settlements on Long Island, West 
Chester and the Jersey shores all shared the same fate. 
Rensselaersw3-ck alone escaped destruction, sheltered 
by the friendl}^ Mohawks. The despairing colonists, 
stripped of their property and fearing for their lives, 
threatened to quit the fort in a body and return to Hol- 
land, and Kieft was compelled as a last resort to take 
them all to serve as soldiers for two months in the pay 
of the Company. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 115 

Amid all the horrors of this savage warfare, an inci- 
dent occurred which proved that the Indians did not for- 
get past kindness in their thirst for vengeance. De 
Yries had always been a firm friend of the Indians, and 
had enjoyed their confidence, yet his plantation at Vries- 
endael did not escape the general destruction. A party 
of Indians made a descent upon the plantation, set fire 
to the barns, and destroyed the crops and cattle. The 
planters took refuge in the rudely fortified manor-house, 
and were preparing to defend their lives to the last 
extremity, when the Indian whose hfe De Vries had 
saved on the night of the Pavonia massacre rushed to 
the spot, and, telling the story, begged his countrymen 
to spare the life of "the good chief." The effect was 
magical. The grateful savages cried out to the planters 
that they were sorry that they had killed the cattle, but 
that they would let the brewery stand, though they 
" longed for the copper kettle to make barbs for their 
" arrows," and at once departed. 

Kieft began to repent bitterly of his rashness. He 
dispatched a messenger with overtures of peace to the 
Long Island Indians, which were rejected with scorn. A 
fast was proclaimed throughout the colony. At this time, 
Roger Williams visited Manhattan on his way to Europe. 
" Before we weighed anchor," he writes, " mine eyes 
" saw the flames of their towns, the frights and hurries of 
" men, women and children, and the present removal of 
" aU that could to Holland." Maddened by their misfor- 
tunes, the excited colonists threw all the blame on Kieft, 
and even talked of deposing him and sending him in 
chains to Holland. To shield himself from their re- 



116 HISTORYOFTHE 

proaches, the director endeavored to throw the odium 
upon Adriaensen and his colleagues, as the instigators of 
the Pavonia massacre. Enraged at this cowardice, Adri- 
aensen, himself almost a ruined man by the destruction 
of his property during tlie war, rushed into the presence 
of the governor, armed with a pistol and hanger, and 
attempted his life. He was quickly disarmed and sent 
to prison, whence, despite the open resistance of his 
friends, he was soon afterwards sent to Holland foi 
trial. 

Meanwhile, the spring had come, and the Indians were 
anxious for a cessation of hostilities that they might plant 
their corn for the coming season. On the 4th of March, 
1G43, three red men approached the fort, bearhig a white 
Hag, but none but De Vries and Jacob Olfertsen dared 
go forth to meet them. " Come and speak to our chief 
" on the sea-coast," said they. De Vries and his com- 
panion fearlessly accompanied their savage guides, who 
led them to Rockaway, where they found nearly three 
hundred Indians assembled. They passed the night in 
the wigwam of the chief. 

At daybi-eak, the next morning, they were roused to 
attend a council of the sachems. The Indians ranged 
themselves in a circle, placing De Vries and his com- 
panion in the middle, and their chosen orator of the tribe 
arose with a bundle of sticks in his hand, and slowly ad- 
dressed the strangers: "When you first came to oui 
" coasts," said he, "you had no food ; we gave you oui 
" beans and corn, and relieved you with our oysters and 
" fish ; and now, for recompense, you murder our peo- 
" pie," and he laid down a stick as the first comit of the 



CITY OP NEW YORK. 117 

indictment. " In the beginning of your voyages, you 
" left your people here with your goods ; we traded with 
"them while your ships were away, and cherished them 
" as the apple of your eye ; we gave them our daughters 
" for companions, who have borne children ; and now you 
" villainously massacre your own blood," and he laid 
down another stick as the second count. Many more 
still remained in his hand, but De Vries, not knowing 
where the fearful catalogue would end, hastily inter- 
rupting him, begged the sachems to go with him to Fort 
Amsterdam, and conclude a peace with the director, to 
which they consented, despite the remonstrances of their 
tribes. " Are you all crazy," said the warrioi's, indig- 
nantly, "to go to the fort where that scoundrel lives who 
" has murdered your friends ?" But De Vries assuring 
them of safety, they said, " Upon your word, we will go, 
" for you have never lied to us, like the rest of the 
" Swannekens." They went, and Kieft gladly con- 
cluded a treaty with them, and sent them away, loaded 
with presents, entreating their mediation with the river 
Indians. 

With some difficulty, a truce was soon after concluded 
with these ; yet it was but a hollow truce. The natives 
were still smarting beneath a sense of their wrongs ; they 
grumbled at the insufficiency of their presents, and mut- 
tered words of ominous meaning, while the whites were 
distrustful of their terrible neighbors, and lived in con- 
stant fear of midnight assault, so that the peace was even 
more fearful than the war. " Our people are con- 
" tinually crying for vengeance ; we can pacify our 
" young men no longer," said a friendly sachem sadly at 



118 HISTORY OF THE 

midsummer, as he Wcarned De Vries in behalf of his 
countrymen against venturing alone in the woods, lest 
some stranger Indian might kill their favorite. 

The words of the sachem were soon fulfilled. In 
August, the war broke out anew. Several trading-boats 
were attacked on the North River, nine men were killed, 
and a woman and two children carried away into cap- 
tivity. In this emergency, Kieft again summoned the 
people together, and eight men were chosen by the 
popular voice to advise with the governor in respect to 
the war. This second representative body consisted of 
Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, Jan Jansen Damen, Barent 
Dircksen, Abraham Pietersen, Isaac AUerton, Thomas 
Hall, Gerrit Wolfertsen, and Cornells Melyn. Their first 
act was to expel from the board Jan Jansen Damen, who 
had been one of the prime instigators of the massacre 
of Pavonia, and to appoint Jan Evertsen Bout in his 
stead, after which they resolved to preserve peace with 
the Long Island Indians, but to renew hostilities with the 
river tribes. 

Preparations were immediately made to carry on the 
war with renewed energy. The colonists were mustei'ed 
and drilled, and to prevent the English colonists from 
leaving the province, fifty were taken into the Company's 
pay, the commonalty having agreed to meet one-third of 
the expense. The command of this detachment was 
intrusted to Captain John Underbill, who had lately 
removed from New Amsterdam to Stamford. 

The colony seemed, indeed, in a hopeless condition. 
One after another of the outside settlements fell a prey 
to the fury of the savages. The Weckquaesgeek Indians, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 119 

joining in the strife, .fell on the plantation of the cele- 
brated Anne Hutchinson, at Annie's Hook, and murdered 
her with her whole family, with the exception of one 
grand-daughter, a child, whom they carried into captivity. 
Proceeding thence, they laid waste the other plantations 
in West Chester, killing, burning, and destroying all be- 
fore them. At Gravesend, they attacked the settlement 
of Lady Deborah Moody, who, having been expelled 
from Salem as an Anabaptist, had estaljlished herself 
there by Kieft's permission, with others of her persuasion. 
The heroic woman, with her friends, made a brave de- 
fence, and iinally repulsed the savage invaders. Not 
equally fortunate was the larger settlement of Doughty, 
at Mespath, which was destroyed, while the colonists 
were forced to flee for safety to Manhattan. The settle- 
ments on New Jersey fell a prey to the Indians, and little 
remained to the Dutch save the small colony at Manhattan. 
Five or six farmhouses were still standing on the upper 
part of the island, but these were hourly threatened with 
destruction. The only place of safety was the fort, around 
which the women and children huddled in straw huts, 
while their husbands and fathers defended its walls. And 
these defenders were but few ; all the men that could be 
mustered were about two hundred, besides fifty or sixty 
soldiers in garrison, and a handful of Englishmen; and with 
these, it was necessary to keep a constant guard, and to re- 
pel the attacks of seven tribes, numbering fifteen hundred 
well-armed men. The cattle had been gathered into the 
fort, where they were starving for want of food. De Vries, 
the only white man in whom the Indians had confidence, 
lict sail for Holland, a ruined man, reproaching Kieft in 



120 HISTORY OF THE 

his last words, with the ruin that had resulted from his 
reckless cruelty. 

In this extremity, the council of Eight Men invoked 
the aid of the colonists at New Haven, but their request 
was unheeded. The English professed to doubt the jus- 
tice of the quarrel ; it may be, too, that they were well 
satisfied that the Indians should do the work they wished 
done, and exterminate the Dutch from the face of the 
New World. Foiled in this quarter, the Eight Men 
addressed an earnest appeal to the government at Hol- 
land, and set about organizing a desperate defence. 
Expeditions were dispatched against the Indian villages ; 
their corn was destroyed, and their wigwams levelled to 
the ground. But here, instead of simply acting on the 
defensive, they darkened the story of the war with 
another act of bloody cruelty. 

In the beginning of the year 1644, a colony of English 
emigrants, headed l)y Robert Fordham, had settled at 
Heemstede on Long Island, after securing a grant of 
land from the Dutch government. Penhawitz, the 
sachem of the Canarsee tribe in the vicinity, had ever 
shown himself a firm friend of the whites ; but in this 
time of general distrust, the English suspected him of 
treacherous designs, and conveyed information of their 
suspicions to the governor at Fort Amsterdam. With- 
out waiting to ascertain the truth of the charge, Kieft 
at once dispatched a detachment of a hundred and 
twenty men under the command of La Montague, Cook 
and LTnderhill with orders to exterminate the Canarsees. 
The party proceeded in three yachts to Cow Bay, where 
they landed, and dividing their foi'ces, marched upon 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 121 

the two Indian villages at Mespath and Heemstede. The 
Indians, taken by surprise, fell an easy prey to their 
enemies. One hundred and twenty were killed and two 
taken prisoners, while of the assailants but one was 
killed and three wounded. The prisoners were conveyed 
in triumph to Fort Amsterdam, where they w^ere put to 
death with the most excruciating tortures. The one fell 
dead in the fort while dancing the death dance beneath 
the knives of his more than savage victors ; the other was 
belieaded on a millstone in Beaver Lane, near the Battery. 
Encouraged by this bloody success, the governor dis- 
patched Underbill with a hundred and fifty men on a 
new expedition against the Connecticut Indians. He 
landed at Greenwich, and, after marching all day in the 
snow, arrived at midnight at the Indian village. This 
consisted of three rows of wigwams, nestling in a nook 
of the mountain which protected them from the north 
winds. The night was clear, and the full moon, shining 
on the snow, gave it all the brightness of a winter's day. 
This time, the Indians were not sleeping, but w^ere 
merrily celebrating one of their annual festivals. In the 
midst of their festivity, the Dutch surrounded the village, 
and charged upon them, sword in hand. The Indians 
made a desperate resistance, but in vain ; every attempt 
to break the line of their foes failed, and in an hour, the 
snow was dyed with the blood of a hundred and eighty 
of their number. Having forced all the Indians into the 
wigwams. Underbill determined to terminate the battle 
by setting fire to the village. Straw and wood were 
quickly heaped about the houses, the pile was kindled, 
and in a few moments, the whole village was in flames, 



122 UlSTORT OF THE 

Men, women and children were shot down as they rushed 
from the burning huts, or forced back again to perish 
there. Between five and six hundred perished by fire 
and sword, and but eight escaped to tell the fearful tale 
to their countrymen. Not a single man of the assailants 
was killed, though fifteen were wounded. The victors 
kindled large fires and slept on the field of battle. The 
next morning, they set out for Fort Amsterdam, which 
they entered in triumph, three days after. They were 
received with open arms, and a public thanksgiving was 
pi'oclauned in gratitude for the victory. This battle is 
supposed to have taken place on Strickland's Plain, 
within three miles of Greenwich. 

This victory practically terminated the war — a war 
which began and ended in massacre, which very nearly 
destroyed the youthful colony, and which was carried on 
by the governor against the wishes of the people. In 
April, 1644, the chiefs of the Long Island and several of 
the river tribes, appeared at the fort and pledged them- 
selves to peace. But the tribes nearest Manhattan 
Island continued hostile until the following year, when 
the Mohawks intei'posed in favor of the Dutch. On the 
30th of August, 1645, the sachems of all the hostile 
tribes assembled on the Bowling Green, and, smoking 
the calumet of peace, pledged themselves to eternal 
friendship with the whites. The 6th of September was 
appointed as a day of general thanksgiving, and the war 
was at an end. 

And it was time. The war had lasted but two j-ears, 
yet the island was almost depopulated. Scarcely a hun- 
dred men were left in Manhattan. The cattle and farms 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 123 

were all destroyed, and the ueighboring settlements 
levelled to the ground. The fort, which had originally 
been nothing more than a bank of earth with corners of 
stone, was crumbling into ruins. The stone church 
which had been commenced in 1642 remained unfinished, 
the money that had been raised for the support of a 
school had been expended for the troops, and the English 
auxiliaries were yet unpaid. Other expenses, too, had 
been incurred in providing for the safety of the city. In 
the spring of 1644, a strong fence had been built through 
Wall street, for the protection of the few cattle that yet 
remained to the settlers ; and this fence, which was 
afterwards extended and strengthened, continued to serve 
as the wall of the city for the ensuing fifty years, and 
gave its name to the street which stands now as the 
monetary wall of the metropolis. The Company, ci'ippled 
by the expenses of their military operations in the 
Brazils, were utterly powerless to render them any assis- 
tance, and a bill which Kieft had drawn on them the 
preceding summer for 2,622 guilders was returned pro- 
tested. To meet this emergency, Kieft again convened 
the assembly of the Eight Men, and proposed to levy an 
excise on wine, beer, brandy and beaver. This was bit- 
terly opposed by the representatives of the people, both 
on account of the impoverished state of the city, and 
because it transcended his rights as a subordinate officer 
of the Company. Their remonstrances were of no avail ; 
the tax was imposed by the unyielding director. 

Just at this juncture, a hundred and three Dutch sol- 
diers who had been expelled from Brazil by the Portu- 
guese insurrection, arrived at Manhattan. These had 



124 niSTORYOFTHE 

been sent by Petrus Stuyvesant, the govei-nor of Cura^'oa, 
to aid the colonists in the war with the Indians. On the 
arrival of these troops, the English auxiliaries were 
civilly dismissed, and the new comers were billeted on 
the citizens. But they were destitute of clothing, and to 
meet this exigency, the director ordered that the excise 
duties, which had been provisionally imposed, should be 
continued. The brewers, upon whom this tax fell most 
heavily, made a sturdy resistance. They were sum- 
moned before the council, a judgment was rendered 
against them, and their beer was given as a prize to the 
soldiers. 

Indignant at this bold violation of their rights, on the 
28th of October, the council of the Eight Men addressed 
a memorial to the Company, demanding the recall of 
Kieft, whom they charged with the whole blame of the 
war, and petitioning that the people might be allowed a 
voice in the municipal government. This document re- 
flected severely on Kieft, who had already sent to the 
directors his own version of the war, together with a 
book and drawings, descriptive of the province. This, 
they quaintly assured the Company, had as many lies 
as hnes in it. "And besides," they continued, "in 
" respect to the animals and geogi'aphy of New Neth- 
" erland, it would be well to inquire how the director- 
" general can write so aptly about those distances and 
" habits, since his honor, during the six or seven years 
" that he has been here, has constantly resided on the 
" Manhattans, and has never been further from his 
" kitchen and his bedroom than the middle of the afore- 
" said island." This memorial was referred to the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 125 

Assembly of Nineteen, who at once determined upon 
Kieft's recall. Being undecided as to a successor, 
Lubbertus Yan Dincklagen, the schout fiscal who had 
been so unceremoniously dismissed eight years before by 
Van Twiller, was appointed to take charge of the gov- 
ernment provisionally. Before he had embarked, how- 
ever, to repair to his new post, the Company made choice 
of Petrus Stuyvesant, the ex-governor of Curagoa, for 
director-general. Van Dincklagen's appointment was 
therefore revoked, and that of vice-director or lirst coun- 
cillor of the province given him instead. 

This done, new regulations were made for the govern- 
ment of the province. Peace with the Indians was 
strenuously insisted on, and Kieft and his council were 
required to repair to Holland to defend their conduct in 
the late war. The annual salary of the director was 
fixed at three thousand, and the expense of the civil and 
military establishment of the province at twenty thousand 
guilders. The director, vice-director and schout were to 
constitute the council, and to have supreme authority in 
civil and military affairs ; in criminal cases, in which 
the schout was comjielled to act as public prosecutor, 
the military commandant took his place in the council, 
and two representatives were added from the people. 
Port Amsterdam was immediately to be repaired with 
" good clay, and firm sods," and a permanent garrison of 
fifty-three men to be maintained in it ; and the colonists 
were counselled to provide themselves with weapons and 
to form a provincial militia. The director was ordered to 
use every effort to procure the planting and settlement 
of the island of Manhattan, and to encourage the intro- 



126 HISTORY OF THE 

ductiou of as many negi'oes as the colonists would i3ur- 
chase at a fair price. AH resti'ictions were removed from 
trade, with the sole proviso that New Amsterdam shovdd 
remain the only port of entry. 

But we have anticipated events in the course of our 
history. The first act of Kieft after the close of the In- 
dian war was to purchase, in behalf of the Company, the 
tract of land on Long Island now known as New Utrecht. 
This purchase was made on the 10th of September, 1641. 
The following month, Thomas Harrington, with several 
other Englishmen, Anabaptist refugees from Massa- 
chusetts, obtained a patent for sixteen thousand acres 
of land, lying east of Mespath, and founded the settle- 
ment of Flushing. Soon after, Kieft gave to Lady 
Moody, her son, and two English officers, a patent 
including the town of Gravesend, with the most liberal 
civil and religious privileges, as a tribute of admiration 
for her gallant defence against her savage assailants. 

Not equally fortunate was Thomas Doughty, the Ana- 
baptist minister and ex-proprietor of Mespath, whose 
settlement had been destroyed during the Indian war. 
A dispute having arisen between him and his associates, 
the director and council decided the case against him and 
took the control of the colony out of his hands ; and upon 
his threatening to appeal to the court of Holland, fined 
him twenty-five guilders, and imprisoned him twenty- 
four hours for contumacy. Soon after, Arnoldus Van 
Hardenburg, a merchant of New Amsterdam, appealed 
in the like manner from a decree of confiscation, and was 
subjected to the same penalty. This refusal of the right 
of appeal excited the indignation of the people, who 



CITY OF NEW YORK. ii( 

murmured at the desjiotic conduct of the director, and 
declared that "under a king they could not be worse 
" treated." The rumor of his speedy recall reached the 
colony, and emboldened them in their rebellion. Domine 
Bogardus, whom Kieft had accused of drunkenness, 
joined in the cry, and denounced him from the pulpit in 
no measured terms. To this, Kieft retorted by absent- 
ing himself from church, and ordering cannon to be fired 
and drums to be beaten about the house during the 
sermon-time to annoy the domine. Nothing daunted, 
the intrepid clergyman continued his anathemas, and 
Kieft at length arraigned him to appear before the court 
within fourteen days to answer to a charge of sedition ; 
but after considerable wrangling, the proceedings were 
finall}'' quashed by the interference of mutual friends. 

On the 11th of May, 1647, these domestic dissensions 
were ended by the arrival of Petrus Stuyvesant, the 
newly appointed director, Vice-director Van Dinckla- 
gen. Fiscal Van Dyck, and a number of officers, sol- 
diers and colonists. The whole city turned out in .irms 
to meet him, firing salutes, and uttering shouts of joy, 
mingled with deep execrations of the late director. "I 
shall govern you as a father does his children," answered 
Stuyvesant, in return to this spontaneous welcome. 

Petrus Stuyvesant, a native of Friesland, had formerly 
been director of the Company's colony at Cura(?oa, 
whence, having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese 
settlement at Saint Martin's, he had been obliged to 
return to Europe for surgical aid. Having regained 
his health, and replaced his leg by a wooden one with 
silver bands, which gave rise to the tradition that he 



128 



HISTORY OF THE 




Petvas Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors. 



wore a silver leg, he received the appointment of director- 
general of the pi'ovince of Xew Xetherland, still retain- 
ing his command of Curapoa and the adjacent islands. 
He was brave and energetic, and the man of all others 
best calculated to retrieve the fallen fortunes of the 
colony. But he was also haughty, imperious, and impa- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 129 

tient of contradiction, and his despotic love of power 
soon weakened the affection with which the citizent 
greeted him on his first arrivaL But, with all his faults, 
he was the man for the times, and his firm and vigorous 
ride contrasts well with the ill-judged and capricious 
conduct of his predecessor. Though sworn hy the duties 
of his office to execute the commands of the West India 
Company, he was at heart attached to the interests of 
the people, with whom he identified himself after the 
forced surrender of the city, by taking up his residence 
among them as a private citizen, the ancestor of a long 
line of prominent men, which has reached down even 
unto the jjresent day. 




Seal of Petrus Stuyvesant. 

Stuyvesant set vigorously to work to reform abuses. 
His first act was to organize his council, which consisted 
of Van Dincklagen, Van Dyck, Adriaen Keyser and Bryan 
Newton, with La Montagne as councillor and Tan Tien- 
hoven as secretary. Paulus Van der Grist was appointed 
equipage-master, and George Baxter was retained as 
English secretary. This done, he set about the work of 
regulating the streets and improving the city. Vau 
9 



130 HISTORTOFTHE 

Dincklagen, Van der Grist and Van Tienhoven were ap- 
pointed fence-viewers to regulate the erection of new 
buildings ; proprietors of vacant lots were directed to 
improve them within nine months, and hog-pens and 
out-houses were ordered to be removed from the high- 
ways. The church still remained unfinished, and Stuyve- 
sant, who had become a member of the Consistory, took 
the woi'k of its completion into his own hands. Bogar- 
dus resigned his charge in order to proceed to Holland 
to answer the charges preferred against him by Van 
Dincklagen, and Johannes Backerus, the former clergy- 
man of Curagoa, was appointed in his place at a salary 
of fourteen hundred guilders per annum. Drunkenness 
and proftmity were strictly forbidden, no liquors were 
permitted to be sold to the Indians, and strict laws 
were passed for the protection of the revenue. The ob- 
noxious duties upon beer, brandy and beaver were not 
removed ; far from this, a new excise was levied upon 
wines and other liquors, and the export duties upon pel- 
tries were still further increased. This proceeding excited 
some discontent among the people, who had looked to the 
coming of the new director to remove this hateful duty. 
Another cause of disaffection soon arose in the colony. 
Kuyter and Melyn, the leading members of the council 
of Eight Men, petitioned that the administration of Kieft 
during the period of the Indian war might be made the 
subject of inquiry. The petition was rejected by the 
director, who saw in it a dangerous precedent for the 
assumption of power by the people ; and the petitioners 
were ordered in turn to be examined as to the origin of 
the Indian war, and to state whether their demand had 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 131- 

been authorized b}' the government or the commonalty ; 
as, otherwise, they must return to Holland with Kieft, to 
substantiate their complaints before the States General. 
Emboldened by this decision, Kieft accused them of be- 
ing the authors of a calumnious memorial to the Assem- 
bly of Nineteen, and, on this ground, demanded their 
banishment. The accusation was accepted, and an in- 
dictment preferred, charging Melyn and Kuyter with 
having fraudulently procured the signatures of the Eight 
Men to the calumnious memorial of the 28th of October, 
1644, unauthorized by the commonalty. In addition to 
this, Melyn was accused of rebellious conduct, while 
Kuyter was charged with urging the mortgage of Man- 
hattan to the English, and threatening Kieft with per- 
sonal violence. 

Both Melyn and Kuyter defended themselves vigor- 
ously against these accusations. They declared that the 
memorial had been written by the authority of the Eight 
Men, and in the name of the commonalty ; that the 
charges in it could be fully substantiated ; and that the 
destruction of fiftj- or sixty bouweries and the murder of 
numerous colonists furnished ample cause for its trans- 
mission. Melyn confessed that he had proposed that the 
island of Manhattan should be pledged to the English as 
a measure of necessity. But their defence availed them 
little ; Stuyvesant and his council, fearing the encroach- 
ments of the people, espoused the cause of Kieft, and 
Melyn was sentenced to seven years' banisliment, and to 
pay a fine of three hundred and fifty guilders ; while 
Kuyter was sentenced to three years' banishment, and to 
pay a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders ; one-third 



132 HISTORY OF THE 

of the money to be given to the poor, one-third to the 
church, and one-third to the fiscal. The heavier punish- 
ment of Melyn was imputed by many to a private 
revenge on the part of Kieft, with whom the former 
had refused to share his grant on Staten Island. 

Both Kuyter and Melyn were placed as criminals on 
board the ship Princess, then ready to return to Holland. 
Kieft accompanied his victims with his ill-got fortune ; 
and Domine Bogardus and Van der Huyghens, the late 
schout fiscal, were also of the company. But the ill- 
fated vessel struck on a rock on the coast of Wales, and 
went to the bottom, carrying with her Kieft, Bogardus, 
a son of Melyn, and eighty others. But twenty were 
saved ; among whom were Kuyter and Melyn. The rich 
cargo of furs, valued at a hundred thousand dollars, was 
irretrievably lost. The news of the tragical end of the 
director excited but little sympathy at New Amsterdam 
while the New England settlers affected to regard it as a 
special mark of the wrath of God against their enemies. 
The sentence against Kuyter and Melyn was afterwards 
reversed by the Company, and they returned with honor 
to New Amsterdam. 

To complete the proposed improvements, money was 
necessary. But the treasury was empty, the taxes came 
in slowly, and the colonists murmured grievouslj^ at 
being taxed without their consent. Embarrassed by the 
difficulties of his position, Stuyvesant at length consented 
to concede a representation, and in August, 1647, called 
an election at w-hich the inhabitants of Manhattan, 
Breuckelen, New Amersfoordt and Pavonia chose eighteen 
men, from whom nine were selected by the director and 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 13S 

council to advise with them in matters relating to the wel- 
fare of the province. This new house of representatives 
consisted of Augustine Heermans, Arnoklus Van Harden- 
burg, Govert Loockermans, Jan Jansen Damen, Jacob 
Wolfertsen Van Couwenhoven, Hendrick Hendricksen 
Kip, Michael Jansen, Jan Evertsen Bout, and Thomas 
Hall ; three of whom were to have seats in the council 
in turn on the usual weekly court day, and to act as 
arbitratoi's in civil cases. Six of the board were to be 
succeeded annually by six others, elected by the director 
and council from among twelve chosen by the people at 
the election on the last day of December. 

The Nine Men at once commenced their deliberations 
in respect to the proposed repairs of the fort and city. 
Stuyvesant offered on the part of the Company to defray 
a part of the expense of a school, and to furnish one of 
the government houses for its temporary accommodation, 
but insisted that the people should repair the fort for 
their own security. This, the Nine Men refused, as the 
Company had bound itself by its charter to keep the 
fort in a posture of defence. They offered, however, to 
repair the church and to reorganize the school without 
delay, and after some hesitation this proposition was 
acceded to, and the repairs commenced forthwith. 

In 1648, Adriaen Keyser, Thomas Hall, Martin Krigier 
and George Woolsey, were appointed fire wardens to in- 
spect the houses in the city. The owners of all chim- 
neys, condemned by them as foul, were to pay a fine of 
three guilders. If a house should be burned by the 
owner's carelessness, he was to pay a fine of twenty-five 
guilders. These fines were to be appropriated to the 



134 HISTORY OF THE 

purchase of ladders, hooks and buckets, to be deposited 
at different places throughout the city. The pubhc wells 
were in the middle of the streets, and the water was 
passed from them in buckets through long rows of 
citizens to the scene of the fire. It was not until 
several years after, however, that these buckets were 
actually provided. Every Monday was fixed as a 
market-day, and an annual fair fur ten days, com- 
mencing on the Monday after St. Bartholomew's Day, 
was established. Various laws for the regulation of 
trade and immigration were enacted, and new ordi- 
nances were passed, forbidding the sale of fire-arms and 
ammunition to the Indians. So earnest were the council 
in this latter prohibition, that Jacob Reintsen, with Jacob 
Schermerhorn and his brother, being convicted soon after 
of violating it, were sentenced to death ; a sentence 
which was afterwards commuted, through the intercession 
of their friends, to the confiscation of their goods. In 
1649, an order was established for the regulation of 
weights and measures, the Amsterdam standard being 
adopted. The same year, a dispute arising between 
Domine Backerus and the director, the domine obtained 
permission to return to Holland ; and Domine Megapo- 
lensis, the ex-minister of Rensselaerswyck, was installed 
as his successor. The following year, Du-qk Yan 
Schelluyne, the first lawyer, commenced practice in the 
city. 

In the meantime, outside difficulties had been pressmg 
heavily upon the director. The dispute between the 
Dutch and English, in respect to the territoiy of the 
Fresh River, together with Long Island, was still pend- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 1 ")5 

ing, and as a last resort, Stuyvesaiit repaired in person 
to the scene of the contest. After a long negotiation, it 
was finally decided to submit the case to two delegates 
from each side, to be subject to their decision. These 
arbitrators assigned to New England, all the eastern por- 
tion of Long Island, comprising the present Suflblk 
County. On the mainland, the boundary was to begin 
at the west side of Greenwich Bay, to run northerly 
'vwenty miles into the country, but in no case to approach 
within ten miles of the Mauritius River. The Dutch 
were left in possession of their territory at Fort Good 
Hope, and no disposition was made in respect to South 
River. 

The people were dissatisfied with an arrangement 
which ceded so large a portion of their territory to their 
enemies, and loudly accused the director of injustice. 
Both the arbitrators appointed by him had been 
Englishmen ; and this displeased the colonists, who 
claimed that their wishes had not been represented in 
the treaty, and complained to the Company that the 
director had surrendered territory enough to form fifty 
colonies, and had taken Englishmen into his confidence 
instead of his legal counsellors. They also petitioned for 
a municipal government, like that of the independent 
cities of the Fatherland. This had been granted to 
Breuckelen some time before. On the 26th of IS^ovem- 
ber, 1646, a charter had been conferred upon the little 
village, then situate nearly a mile distant from the wa- 
ter's edge, granting to the inhabitants the right of elect- 
ing two schepens, or magistrates, with full judicial 
powers. These were subordinate to a schout, who was 



136 HISTORY OF THE 

in turn, subordinate to the schout fiscal of Manhattan. 
These liberal privileges naturally excited the envy of their 
brethren across the river, who claimed similar rights for 
themselves. On the 4th of April, 1652, their petition 
was granted by the Company, and a "burgher govern- 
ment" established at Manhattan. This consisted of a 
schout, to be appointed by the Company, and two 
burgomasters and five schepens, to be elected by the 
people ; who were to form a municipal Court of Jus- 
tice, subject to the right of appeal to the Supreme Court 
of the province. At the same time, the States General 
ordered Stuyvesant to repair at once to Holland, to give 
an account of his administration ; but, yielding to the 
remonstrances of the Amsterdam chamber, were at 
length persuaded to revoke their recall. Domine Dris- 
sius was appointed as assistant to Megapolensis, and La 
Montague took charge of the school. 

The city thus received its first incorporation. Cornells 
Van Tienhoven was elected schout ; Arent Van Hatten 
and Martin Krigier, burgomasters ; and Paulus Van der 
Grist, Maximilian Van Gheel, AUard Anthony, Wilhelm 
Beekmau* and Pieter Van Couwenhoven, schepens. 
The stone tavern at Coenties' Slip was converted into a 
" stadt buys" or city-hall; and the magistrates held 
their court there every Monday morning, beginning at 
nine and closing at twelve. 

In the autumn of 1652, the settlements of Middleburgh 
and Midwout, now Newtown and Flatbush, were founded 
under patents from Stuyvesant. In the same year, a war 

• Emigrated from Holland with Stuyvesant iu 16i7. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 137 

broke out between England and Holland, and the citi- 
zens, fearing an attack from their New England neigh- 
bors, set to work to fortify the city. The fence that had 
been erected along the line of Wall street during the late 
war for the protection of the cattle, was converted into 
a ditch and palisades with a breast-work, and extended 
from river to river. The fort was also strengthened, and 
the whole body of citizens were ordered to mount guard 
every night. Grateful for the concessions which had just 
been made them, the citizens promptly raised the six 
tliousand guilders which were needed for the completion 
of the fortifications, and set to work themselves, pick and 
shovel in hand, to dig the trenches and erect the palisades. 
During the whole summer, the citizens remained under 
arms, expecting an attack ; nor were their fears un- 
founded. The settlers of New England took advantage 
of this opportunity to break the late treaty, and to en- 
deavor to further their plans for the ultimate conquest of 
New Netherland. Their first step was to accuse Stuy ve- 
sant of having plotted with the Narragansett Indians for 
the destruction of the English. The sachems themselves 
denied all knowledge of such a plot, and Stuyvesant 
indignantly demanded an investigation of the matter. 
Three delegates were accordingly appointed to visit New 
Amsterdam, and receive depositions; but little was accom- 
plished by this negotiation, and the delegates returned to 
Boston with small proof of the accusation. On Long 
Island, Captain Underbill, turning against his late allies, 
endeavored to stir up the colonists to revolt, but without 
effect. The commissioners of the United Colonies, who 
•till professed to believe in the reality of the plot, urged 



138 HISTORY OF THE 

immediate hostilities against the Dutch, but the General 
Court of Massachusetts refused to take part in the war, 
and thus prevented the accomplishment of the design. 
Eager for the conquest of the Dutch province, the other 
colonies persisted in their purpose, and by their repre- 
sentations, induced Cromwell to send an expedition 
against New Amsterdam. Before it arrived, peace was 
proclaimed between England and Holland. The news 
was received with joy in the city ; bells were rung and 
cannon fired, and the 12th of July, 1654, was set 
apart as a day of general thanksgiving. 

In the meantime, a continual contest had been going 
on between the people andthe director, and to replenish 
his exhausted treasury, the latter had been compelled to 
surrender to the city the obnoxious excise on beer and 
liquors. But this failed to satisfy the burgomasters 
and schepens, who, on the 24th of December, 1653, ad- 
dressed a letter to the Company, entreating that New 
Amsterdam might enjoy equal municipal privileges with 
her namesake in Holland. They demanded that the 
schout should be chosen by the people, instead of being, 
as heretofore, the Company's fiscal ; and that as the city 
was compelled to defray its own expenses, the excise 
should go into the city treasury, and power should be 
conferred upon the municipal authorities to levy taxes, 
and to lease the ferry between Long Island and New 
Amsterdam. They also demanded that the city should 
have a seal and a stadt buys of its own, and should have 
full authority to sell and convey lands, and to regulate its 
local affairs ; and that fixed salaries should be granted 
to the magistrates. In the spring of 1(354, a portion of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 139 

their demands was reluctantly granted. The office of 
schout was separated from that of the Company's fiscal ; 
but the directors still retained the power of appointment 
in their own hands. The municipal authorities were 
granted tlie use of the stadt buys, which had hitherto been 
wholly under the control of the provincial government; 
they were permitted to pay the public salaries out of the 
excise, and to levy taxes with the consent of the com- 
monalty and the provincial government; and to sell and 
convey lands within the limits of the city. No one was 
permitted to ferry across the river without a license from 
the magistrates. The ferryman was required to keep 
proper servants and boats, and a house on both sides the 
river for the accommodation of passengers, and to pass 
all officials free of toll. On the other hand, he was not 
compelled to ferry anything without prepayment, or to 
cross the river in a tempest. On the 10th of October of 
the same year, an ordinance was passed by the city au- 
thorities, regulating the rates of ferriage at three stuy- 
vers each for foot passengers, except Indians, who paid 
six each, unless there were two or more. On the 19th of 
March, 1658, the ferry was put up at auction, and leased 
to Hermanns Van Borsum for three years, at three hun- 
dred guilders a year. The annual salary of the burgo- 
masters was fixed at three hundred and fifty, and that of 
the schejjens at two hundred and fifty guilders. A seal* 

* This seal is thus described by E. B. 0. Callaghan, Esq., to whom we are indebted 
for this information: — "Argent per pale; three crosses saltire ; Crest, a Beaver 
proper, surmounted by a mantle, on which is a shield or, bearing the letters G.W.C. 
(Geeoctroyerde West Indische Compagnie). Under the base of the arms are the 
words, SiGiLLtiM AiiSTELLODAMEXSis IN Novo Belgio : — the Seal of Amsterdam in 
Jscw Xcthcrland. The whole is encircled with a wreath of laurel." — See cut on p. 52. 



140 



HISTORY OF THE 




,>-4 



.'^Y- 



Seal of New Netherlancl, 1623-1664.— ( T^w seal is referred to on page 52.) 



was also granted to the city, which was received and 
pubUcly delivered on the 8th of the next December by 
the Director to Martin Krigier, the presiding burgomas- 
ter. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter was appointed schout 
by the Company, as many supposed, to make amends 
for the harsh usage he had formerly received from the 
hands of their officer. But he was murdered by the In- 
dians before the arrival of liis commission, and Fiscal 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 141 

Van Tienhoven was continued in the office by Stuyve- 
sant, despite the discontent of the burghers. 

Much dissatisfaction also prevailed in the settlements 
on Long Island, and on the 10th of December, 1653, a 
Laudttag or Diet, composed of delegates from New 
Amsterdam, Breuckelen, Midwout, MidcUeburgh, Heem- 
stede, Amersfoordt, Flushing and Gravesend assem- 
bled in the city. These delegates addressed a remon- 
strance to the governor, complaining of the arbitrary 
enactment of laws and appointment of officers, and the 
partial distribution of lands ; and demanding for the peo- 
ple a direct share in the government. This proceed- 
ing deeply offended the director, who regarded it as an 
encroachment upon bis prerogative, and he angrily dis- 
solved the assembly. Upon this, the delegates protested 
to the Company ; and the English settlers, who were noto- 
riously disaffected, and were even suspected of conspiring 
with the freebooters who infested the shores, grew so 
turbulent, that, to counteract their influence, Stuyvesant 
determined to increase the power of the Dutch villages by 
giving them the privileges they desired. Breiickelen had 
two schepens already ; two more were now added, and 
David Provoost was appointed her first separate schout. 
Midwout and Amersfoordt also received a municipal 
government. The Company, on their part, treated the 
protest with scorn, and ordered Stuyvesant to crush all 
such insolent pretensions. 

Hitherto, the minister at New Amsterdam had also 
officiated occasionally on Long Island. But, as the 
settlements increased, the colonists demanded a settled 
minister, and, in 1654, the first church on Long Island 



142 HISTORY or THE 

was built at Midwoutor Flatbush, and Domine Johannes 
Polhemus, who had just arrived from Brazil, was installed 
at a salaiy of six hundred guilders. In this church, he 
preached every Sunday morning, preaching in the after- 
noons alternately at Breuckelen and Amersfoordt, until 
1660, when Domine Henry Selyns was installed as minis- 
ter of the church at the former place. At the same 
time of the erection of the church at Midwout, the 
Lutherans determined to build a church at New Amster- 
dam. But Stuyvesant, who was a zealous Calvinist, 
refused them permission, and the Company, influenced by 
the representations of the Classis and the clergy of the 
Reformed Dutch Church, supported him in the refusal, on 
the ground that so dangerous a precedent would soon be 
followed by the other dissenting sects, and thus destroy 
the established religion of the province. This was the first 
manifestation of religious bigotry in New Netherland. 

At this juncture, trouble broke out in a new quarter. 
In 1650, Stuyvesant had built Fort Casimir near the 
mouth of the Brandywine River, about five miles dis- 
tant from the Swedish fort Christina, for the purpose of 
protecting the Dutch commerce from the encroachments 
of the Swedes. This territory, the Swedes claimed as 
their own, and in 1654, Rising, their governor, took 
jjossession of the fort, disarmed the garrison, and changed 
its name from Casimir to Trinity — the capture having been 
made on Trinity Sunday. Indignant at this outrage, Stuy- 
vesant seized the Golden Shark, a Swedish ship which 
had entered Sandy Hook Bay by mistake, took posses- 
sion of her cargo, and brought the factor a prisoner to 
Fort Amsterdam ; then invited the Swedish srover- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 143 

nor to visit him at Manhattan to adjust differences; 
promising him courteous treatment and a safe return 
This invitation was peremptorily refused by the Swede, 
upon which Stuyvesant dispatched an account of the 
affair to his superiors, and demanded instructions as to 
further proceedings. Tlie Swedish rule was now broken 
iu Europe, and the government, having no longer any 
reason for temporizing, at once directed the governor 
not only to avenge tlie insult, but to drive the Swedes 
from every part of the river. The command accorded 
well with the warlike spirit of Stuyvesant. All the 
military force of the colony was at once mustered for 
the enterprise, and on the 5tli of September, 1655, lie 
sailed with seven vessels and six or seven hundred men 
to attack the Swedish colony at Fort Christina. The 
enterprise was successful ; and the forts were forced to 
surrender. The Swedes were compelled either to evacu- 
ate the country or to swear allegiance to the Dutch gov- 
ernment ; Rising was sent to Europe, and a Dutch com- 
mandant was placed in charge of the conquered territory. 
The Indians had always been friendly under the jiaci- 
fic rule of Stuyvesant. In the ten years that had rolled 
away since the Indian war. their former hostility had 
almost been forgotten, and when Stuyvesant sailed for 
New Sweden, leaving the settlement defenceless, no one 
thought of danger from the natives. But, a short time 
before, the ex-fiscal, Hendrick Van Dyck, had shot a 
squaw whom he had detected in stealing peaches from 
his orchard, just below Rector street ; and the murder 
had not been forgotten by her tribe, who now seized the 
opportunity to wreak their vengeance on the unprotected 



144 HISTORY OF THE 

settlers. Ou the 15tli of September, sixty-four canoes, 
containing about five liundi-ed armed warriors, landed 
before daybreak at Fort Amsterdam, and spread them- 
selves over the town, telling the startled burghers that 
they came in search of some Indians from the north, 
who had secreted themselves there. The pretext did 
not deceive the citizens, but by friendly words and pro- 
mises, they succeeded in keeping their savage visitors 
quiet, and finally persuaded them to leave the town at 
sunset and cross over to Governor's Island. They 
returned in the evening, and shot Van Dyck, the offender, 
in the breast with an arrow. Van der Grist was also 
struck down with an axe. The people were roused to a 
desperate defence, and hastily rallying together, they 
assaulted the savages, and drove them to their canoes. 
It was only to change the scene of destruction. Crossing 
the North River, they recommenced their bloody work 
at Hoboken and Pavonia, slaughtering men, women and 
children without mercy, and burning the houses, barns 
and crops. Thence, they crossed over to Staten Island, 
which they quickly laid waste. In three days, one hun- 
dred of the settlers were killed, and one hundred and 
fifty taken prisoners. Twenty-eight bouweries with 
their cattle and crops were destroyed ; and the losses of 
the colonists were computed at two hundred thousand 
guilders. 

The whole country was aroused. From all sides, the 
terrified farmers flocked to the fort for safety. The 
settlements on Long Island were threatened with des- 
truction, and bands of Indians prowled over the island 
capturing or killing every colonist that chanced to fall in 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 145 

their way. An express was at once dispatched to the 
director, who quickly returned to the terror-struck city. 

But his pohcy differed widely from that of the head- 
strong Kieft. While he used every precaution to protect 
the colonists from the attacks of their enemies, Jje strove 
to conciliate the latter by kind words and presents, in- 
stead of incensing them still furtlrtir by new provocations. 
In this, he was successful. The Indians, terrified by his 
prejDarations and pacified by his gifts, soon consented to 
release their prisoners and to treat for peace. 

Peace having thus been made with both Indian and 
European foes, the colony l>egan thenceforth steadily to 
prosper. In 1656, the first map of the city, containing 
seventeen streets, was drawn ; and two years after, 
stone pavements were first laid down in Stone street. 
At this time, the average price of the best lots was fifty 
dollars. A census was taken, which enumerated a hun- 
dred and twenty houses, and one thousand inhaljitauts 
in the city of New Amsterdam. In the same year (1656) 
a stand for country wagons was established at the foot 
of Whitehall street. Provision was made to secure the 
shores of the Bast River from the washing of the tide 
by lining them with planks ; and the wharf, which was 
on the line of Moore street, extending but little beyond 
the low water mark, was improved by an extension of 
fifty feet. 

In the following year, an important distinction was 
created among the citizens by the introduction of the 
system of great and small burgher-rights, then in vogue 
in Amsterdam. This change sprung directly from the 
citizens themselves. For many years, peddlers had been 
10 



146 HISTORY OF THE 

in the habit of bringing their goods into the province and 
disposing of them ; then returning to Europe with the 
avails of tlieir adventure. The merchants, dishking that 
their trade should thus be drawn off by those who bore 
no part of the burdens of the colony, entreated that no 
persons but city burghers should be allowed to carry on 
business in the metropolis, and none but settled resi- 
dents to trade in the interior. To meet their demands, 
in 1657, Stuyvesant and his council required that before 
selling their goods, all traders should open a store within 
the limits of the city, and pay to the municipal authori- 
ties the sum of twenty guilders. This entitled them to 
the small burgher-right ; to which, likewise, all were 
entitled who were natives, or who had resided a year 
and six weeks in the city ; who should marry the daugh- 
ters of burghers ; and all salaried officers of the Company. 
By paying llic sum of iifty guilders, they entered the class 
of great burghers, which included all the provincial and 
municipal authorities, both present and future, together 
with their m»ale descendants. All city officials were 
required to be chosen from the latter class, who were 
likewise exempt for one year from watch and military 
service, and free from arrest from the inferior courts. 
From this sprung the kindred institution under the Eng- 
lish government of the freedom of the city. 

In 1658, two hundred and fifty fire-buckets with 
hooks and ladders, were imported from Holland for the 
use of the city, and a rattle watch, consisting of eight 
men, was organized. All thatched roofs and wooden 
chimneys were ordered to be removed, and the best lots 
were taxed imtil built upon At this time, the average 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 147 

rent of the best houses was about fourteen dollars a year. 
A market-house, the first in the city, was erected for the 
sale of meat at the Bowling Green. The only school in 
the city had always been irregularly sustained, owing to 
the want of funds and a suitable school-house. Jacob 
\'"an Corlaer attempted to remedy the deficiency by 
opening a private school, but this was quickly inter- 
dicted by Stuyvesant, on the ground that he had received 
no permission from the provincial authorities. But many 
of the burghers were anxious to give their children a 
classical education, and as it was impossible to obtain 
this nearer than Boston, they wrote to the Company to 
send them a Latin teacher, promising to build a school- 
house at their own cost. As a further inducement, they 
urged that the inhabitants of the neighboring towns 
would likewise send their children, and that "New 
Amsterdam might finally thus attain to an academy, the 
credit of which would redound to the honor of the Com- 
pany." This argument proved convincing, and the next 
year. Doctor Alexander Carolus Curtius was sent to 
them at a salary of five hundred guilders and perqui- 
sites. Curtius soon established a flourishing Latin school 
in the city, where he also practised as a physician. He 
returned to Holland two years after, and was succeeded 
by Doraine /Egidius Luyck, the private tutor of the fam- 
ily of the director. 

At this time, but a small part of the island was under 
cultivation. The greater part of it lay waste and com- 
mon. The lots below Wall street were large enough for 
garden-plots and orchards. Every settler kept his cows, 
and a herdsman was appointed by the city to drive them 



148 HISTORY OF THE 

to the public pasture — the present Park and the land in 
its vicinity. Every morning, this functionary passed 
through the streets of the city, blowing a horn to warn 
the inhabitants of his approach. Collecting the cows 
that were tm-ned out at the gates in a common herd, he 
drove them through the city gates at Wall street ; then, 
guiding them along the crooked Pearl street, he turned 
them into the inclosure, and drove them back at night to 
their owners. As the city increased, the inhabitants 
built along the beaten track, which came to bear the 
name of " the Cow Path." 

The village was now growing into a city, and the 
inhabitants began to feel the need of a good road for 
pleasure riding. The upper part of the island was still 
wild and rocky, and the governor resolved to found a 
village there, to be called New Harlaem, and to open a 
good road thither from New Amsterdam. To encourage 
a speedy settlement, he offered to give the villagers a 
ferry to Long Island, with a court and clergyman of 
their own, as soon as they numbered twenty-five famihes ; 
but few were willing to live so far in the country, and 
two years passed before the village was large enough 
to profit by his offer. In 1660, an inferior court was 
organized, and the village thus received a partial incor- 
poration. In the same year, a second survey was made 
of the city, which was found to contain three hundred 
and fifty houses. 

From this time the colony flourished. The wise policy 
of the Company induced them to use every effort to 
encourage emigration, and thus to increase their strength 
and prosperity. The strife between the people and the 



i 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 149 

governor was the principal drawback to the prosperity 
of the colony. The West India Company wished to 
rule supreme over the settlement which they had founded, 
and which they regarded as their own peculiar property, 
and Stuyvesant, their representative, was not the man to 
bate one jot of their pretensions. The people, on the 
other hand, were of the freest nation in Europe, they 
had lost none of their native independence in this new 
clime, and they demanded the right to choose their own 
rulers ; a demand which, step by step, they obtained. In 
1660, the Company yielded the last point, and permitted 
them to have a schout of their own, appointed to the 
office by the Amsterdam chamber. Pieter Tonneman 
filled the office. Less religious toleration prevailed now 
than formerly. Stuyvesant, a fanatical Calvinist, de- 
tested all dissenters, and persecuted the Quakers for a 
time with rigor ; but he was soon checked in this intol- 
erance by the commands of the Company, who, while 
they washed to establish the Reformed Dutch rehgion 
in the province, were anxious at the same time to pre- 
serve the spirit of religious freedom which character- 
ized the Fatherland. 

In 1661, the Company bought Staten Island from Melyn 
and Van de Capellen, its former owners, and made grants 
of land thereon to various colonists: and a small settle- 
ment was founded a few miles south of the Narrows, by 
several families of French Huguenots. In the same year, 
Jacques Cortelyou founded the settlement of New 
Utrecht, to which, a few months afterwards, Stuyvesant 
o-ranted a village charter, as also to the village of Boswyck 
or Bushwick, which had been settled the year before. 



150 HISTORY OF THE 

Boswyck, New Utrecht, Breuckelen, Amersfoordt and 
Midwout were placed under the jurisdiction of a single 
sellout, each having separate schepens of its own, and 
were known henceforth as the " Five Dutch Towns." 

But danger was menacing the province from without. 
The English, who laid claim to the whole continent as 
having been discovered by Cabot, were slowly but surely 
extending their rule, while, surrounded on all sides by 
their colonies, and under the protection of a private 
trading company instead of a powei'ful government, New 
Netherland was ill prepared to defend her rights. The 
English had long looked with a covetous eye upon the 
rich possessions of their Dutch neighbors ; the time had 
now come to attempt their conquest. Despite the threats 
and protests of Stuyvesant, the Dutch colonies in Dela- 
ware and Westchester and on Long Island successively 
fell into their hands, and he saw that they would be 
content with nothing less than the whole of New Nether- 
land. It was not long before affairs reached the crisis. 
In 1664, Charles II. granted to his brother, James, Duke 
of York and Albany, a patent of the territory lying 
between Connecticut River and Delaware Bay, including 
the whole of the Dutch possessions in America, together 
with a part of the same territory in Connecticut which 
had been previously granted by him to Governor Win- 
throp. 

Upon receiving the patent, and without giving any 
notice to the government of Holland, the Duke of York 
immediately dispatched four ships with four hundred and 
fifty soldiers, under the command of Colonel Richard 
NicoUs, his deputy governor, to take possession of his 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 151 

newly acquired territoiy. Sir Robert Carr, Colonel 
George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick accompanied 
the expedition as commissioners to visit the New England 
colonies. The squadron separated on the coast in a fog, 
the ship with the deputy governor on board put in at 
Boston, and the others anchored at Piscatawa3^ Having 
procured supplies, they proceeded on their way, and 
anchored in Nyack Bay, between New Utrecht and 
Cone}^ Island, in the month of August, 1G64 ; then 
immediately took jiossession of the block-house on Stateii 
Island, and intercej^ted all communication between Man- 
hattan and the neighboring shores. 

On hearing of the intended invasion, the citizens had 
hastily fortified the city, and increased the military force 
as much as they were able. But they were ill-prepared 
to stand a siege. Not moi'e than four hundred men were 
able to bear arms, and for these there were but six hundred 
pounds of powder. The fort and the wall of palisades 
which had defended them so well against the Indians, 
would avail them nothing before their civilized foes. 
They were exposed on both rivers, and there was no 
hope that they could possibly resist an assault. Besides, 
a large proportion of the inhabitants were English- 
men, who were secretly longing for the triumph of theii' 
countrymen ; while the Dutch themselves, wearied with 
the arbitrary exactions of the Company, fancied that 
good might result from a change of masters. The brave 
old Stuyvesant would willingly have rallied his people 
and stood a siege ; but his efforts were in vain, the time 
bad come for the fall of New Amsterdam. 

On the morning after the arrival of the squadron, 



152 HISTORY OF THE 

XicoUs sent a summons to the city to surrender, prom- 
ising the inhabitants protection of Hfe, liberty and pro- 
perty. Hastily convening the council and city autliorities, 
Stuyvesant informed them of the summons, but refused 
to let the people know of the proffered terms, lest they 
might force him to yield the city. This the burgo- 
masters sharply opposed, and after an animated debate, 
the director was forced to accede to their wishes. 

While they were thus debating the surrender, NicoUs 
sent another letter to Winthrop, the aged governor of 
Connecticut, who had joined the squadron, begging him 
to assure Stuyvesant that the privileges of the Hollanders 
should in no wise be restrained, but that they should 
continue to have full liberty to settle at 'Manhattan and 
to go and return thither in ships of their own country. 
Winthrop at once visited the city under a flag of truce, 
and delivered the letter to the governor, who vainly 
endeavored to withhold it from the people. The burgo- 
masters insisted that it should be publicly read, when 
Stuyvesant, incensed beyond all expression, tore it in 
pieces before their eyes. The news was soon carried to 
the citizens at the palisades, who, abandoning their work, 
rushed to the stadt-huys, crying, " the letter ! the letter !'' 
Resistance was in vain, and a copy was made from the 
carefully collected fragments and given to the people. 
In answer to the summons to surrender, Stuyvesant 
returned a long defence of the Company's right to the 
province ; while he secretly sent his last dispatch under 
cover of night to Holland. 

Irritated at this long delay, NicoUs landed the soldiers 
from two of his ships at Breuckelen to storm the city by 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



153 



land. The others sailed up the bay, and anchored in 
front of Fort Amsterdam. With the muzzles of their 
loaded cannon pointed at the ships, the- soldiers of Stuy- 
vesant awaited the conamand to fire. It would have lieen 
the signal for the destruction of the city. Men, w^omen, 
and children Hocked around the director, beseeching him 
to desist and to surrender. " I would rather Ije carried 
"out dead,'' was his reply. But he was at length 




Old Stuyvesant Pear-tree in 1SG7. 



154 



HISTORY OF THE 



obliged to yield. The lacoplc refused to obey his summons, 
the principal citizens, including his own son, implored 
him to submit, and at last tlie brave old Stuyvesant sadly 
consented to deliver up the fort, ou condition that it 
should be returned again in case the difference of the 
boundaries should be settled by England and Holland. 

On the morning of the 8th of September, 1664, 
Stuyvesant marched his soldiers out of Fort Amsterdam 
with all the honors of war. At the same time, the Eng- 
lish troo^ts marched in triumph into the city, and run up 
the English flag upon the fort, which they christened at 
once by the name of Fort James. NicoUs was pro- 
claimed as deputy governor, and the city of Xew Amster- 
dam was transformed into Xew York. 

Stuyvesant remained a resident of his beloved city, 
where he died and was buried in the family vault within 
tlie walls of the church which he had l)uilt at his own 
expense upon his extensive farm. The church is now 
gone, and its place is occupied by the church of St. 
Mark. In the outside wall of the latter, may be seen 
the original tablet with the following inscription : 



mh. 



^=r" 



lii; 



"<,(_ III this vault lies buried 

PETRUS STUYVESANT 
late Captain General and Conimander-iu-Cliief of Anistcrda 

in New Netherland now called Xew York 
and the Dutch West India Islands, died in August a n. Iii8'2 
aged SO years. 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 155 

Just without the gi-aveyard iuclosure, on the corner of 
Thh-teenth street and TMrd Avenue, long stood the well- 
known Stuyvesant i^ear-tree, which had been brought 
from Holland m 1647, and planted by the governor's own 
hands in what was then his garden. At the end of Feb- 
ruary, 1867, this last relic of the Dutch dynasty, which 
had survived its contemporaries more than two hundred 
years, fell before the wind, and with it passed away aU 
vestiges of the brave old director, Petrus Stuyvesant.* 

* Governor Stuyvesant married Judith Bayard, a French refugee, by wliom he had 
two sons, Balthaziir Lazar and Nicholas William, from the younger of whom is de- 
scended the present Stuyvesant family of New York. 



CHAPTER IV. 



New York under the English Government — Recaptnre of the Province by the Dutch, 
and subsequent Retrocession. 

The English having thus succeeded in their long-cherished 
project of expelling the Dutch from their American pos- 
sessions, Colonel Nicolls took possession of the conquered 
pro\dnce as deputy-governor in behalf of the Duke of 
York. The people, in fact, cared little for the change. 
They had been oppressed by the Dutch governors ; taxes 
had been levied on them without their consent ; they 
had been denied that direct share in the government 
which they claimed as their right, in conformity with 
the municipal institutions of the Fatherland ; and the 
few privileges which they enjoyed had been wrung with 
difficulty from their despotic rulers. Yet the Dutch 
government was at this time the most liberal of any ; 
but the province had been abandoned to the tender 
mercies of a selfish trading company, instead of being 
fostered by the protecting care of the States General. 
Besides, the English element now mingled largely in the 
city. The settlers who had come from New England 
and Virginia, retaining their predilection for their native 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 157 

institutions, rejoiced in the change ; and the Dutch 
themselves were not greatly affected by it. Their trade 
with Holland was not interrupted ; they were still 
allowed to choose their inferior officers and to presei've 
their customs of inheritance ; their liberty of conscience 
was respected, and they were exempted from all danger 
of impressment, either for the arniy or the navy. The 
most oppressive grievance of which they had to compkin 
was a law declaring all titles of land granted by the 
Dutch government to be invalid, and exacting large fees 
for their renewal. 

The governor made it his policy to conciliate his new 
subjects, and it was not until the following year that he 
deemed it prudent to meddle with the form of govern- 
ment, and to substitute new officials for the schout, 
burgomaster and schepcns. On the 12th of June, 1665, 
he issued the first English charter, since known as the 
Xicolls Charter, which revoked the form of the muni- 
cipal government, and placed the executive power in the 
hands of a mayor, five aldermen and a sheriff, accord- 
mg to the English custom of incorporation ; said officers 
to be appointed by the governor. Thomas Willett was 
appointed mayor ; Thomas Delavall, Oloffe Stevensen 
Van Cortlandt,* John Brugges, Cornelius Van Ruyven 
and John Lawrence, aldermen, and Allard Anthony, 
sheriff. Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York 
city, and great-great-grandfather of Col. Marinus Willett 
of Revolutionary memory, who held the same office a 
hundred and forty-two years after, was one of the Ply- 

• Emigrated from Holland in 1637. 



158 HISTORY OF THE 

mouth Pilgrims. He had emigrated from England in 
1629, and soon after engaging in trade with New 
Amsterdam, had purchased land in the city, and finally 
become a permanent resident. He was a popular man 
among his fellow-citizens, and this fact, joined with the 
judicious mingling of Dutch and English in the appoint- 
ment of the other officials, disposed the people favorably 
towards the new government. Soon after, jury trials 
were established in the city. The governor retained the 
right to himself and his council to impose taxes and to 
enact or modify laws as they might deem proper. This 
last clause was distasteful to the people, and occasioned 
much complaint during his administration. 

The city records were now ordered to be kept both in 
Dutch and English, and Nicholas Bayard* was appointed 
assistant clerk to the Common Council ; the principal 
secretary, Johannes Nevius, being imperfectly versed in 
the English language. 

At this time, the city contained about fifteen hundred 
inhabitants, consisting of people of every sect in the 
nation. The only church, however, in the city, was the 
stone edifice within the walls of the fort, erected by Wil- 
helm Kieft, in which the Dutch Reformed ser^dce had 
hitherto been performed. The service of the Church of 
England was now introduced, and Nicolls, who appears 
to have been a man of liberal sentiments, gave the 
Lutherans permission to erect a church for themselves 
and to send to Europe for a preacher of their own 
denomination, which they had sought in vain from Stuy- 

• His mother was the sister of Stiiyvesatit. 



CITY OF NEW Y O 11 K . 



159 



vesaut. They nvailed themselves of this, and huiU a 
small churcli in which the Rev. Jacob Fal)ritius, who 
arrived in 1GG9, officiated as the first mniister. It was 
not long before dissensions arose between him and his 
charge, who accused him of grave misdemeanors, which 
seem to have been sul)stantiated, as, on inquiry, the 
governor and council suspended him from tlio ministry, 
permitting liim only to preach a farewell sermon and to 
install Bernardus Arent as liis successor. Fabrieius 
soon after repaired to Albany. On the recai:)ture of the 
province by the Dutch, this church was removed by the 
orders of Governor Colve. It was rebuilt after the 
retrocession on the site of the future Grace Church on 
the west side of Broadway, for which a patent was 
obtained from Governor Dongan. The iirst churches 
were but temjiorary buildings. The structure in Broad- 
way, which was destroyed by the fire of ITTG, was Ijuilt 
in ITIO, soon after the commencement of the adminis- 
tration of Governor Hunter, and chiefly tliruugh the 
efforts of the newly-arrived Palatines. 




Old Lutheran Cliurch in Frauklort Stieut. Erected in 17G7. 



160 HISTORY OF THE 

Soon after the capture of the province by the English, 
the territory forming the present State of New Jersey, 
which had hitherto belonged to New Netherland, was 
granted by the Duke of York to Lord Berkeley and Sir 
George Carteret as a distinct and separate province. 
The boundaries between New York and Connecticut 
were also defined by commissioners appointed for the 
purpose, and Long Island was adjudged the property of 
the former. 

In the meantime, this invasion of the Dutch possessions 
in a time of profound peace had caused a war between 
England and Holland, and a rumor that a hostile squad- 
ron under the command of the formidable De Ruyter had 
been dispatched by the States General to recapture the 
lost province gave the governor great alarm. He imme- 
diately set about strengthening the fortifications, which 
were very much out of repair, and making preparations 
for defence ; and summoned the citizens to aid him in 
the work. This they were reluctant to do. A few, 
indeed, offered to assist him, but the majority were not at 
all inclined to war against their own countrymen, how- 
ever indifferent they might be to the result of the strug- 
gle. But, ere long, peace was declared, and by the treaty 
of Breda in 1667, the province of New Netherland was 
ceded to the English government in exchange for Suri- 
nam, though many of the English grumbled at the 
exchange, and complained that their countrymen had 
been overreached in the bargain. 

After administering aff^iirs with considerable sagacity 
for three years. Colonel Nicolls determined to return 
to Europe, and, having asked and obtained his recall. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. J 61 

set sail on his homeward voyage in August, 1668. He 
engaged in the subsequent war against Holland, and was 
killed in a naval engagement in 1672. Colonel Francis 
Lovelace was appointed his successor. 

The change of rulers was not to the advantage of the 
people. Lovelace proved far more despotic than NicolLs 
had been. The people had long since demanded the 
right of levying their own taxes, and of controlling their 
own affairs ; but the governments, both Dutch and Eng- 
lish, had decided that their only right was to obey, and 
had made it their settled policy to force them to submis- 
sion. This, Lovelace determined to do in the most effect- 
ual manner. He ordered his deputy in the territory 
west of the Delaware to carry out his measures m that 
section of the country by levjing such taxes on the peo- 
ple as might give them "liberty for no thought but how 
" to discharge them ;" and proceeded himself to impose a 
duty of ten per cent, upon all imports or exports to or 
from the province. Contending for the rights of free- 
born Englishmen, among which, they claimed, was a par- 
ticipation in legislation, several of the Long Island towns, 
together with West and East Chester, petitioned for a 
redress of grievances, but to no effect. 

Li 1670, Lovelace ordered the towns of Long Island 
to contribute to the repairs of the fort at New York. 
This they positively refused to do unless they were 
admitted to a share of the government. Flushing, Hemp- 
stead and Jamaica protested against this tyrannous pro- 
ceeding ; for their sole answer, the governor and council 
ordered the protests to be publicly burned by the hands 
of the hangman. 

II 



162 



HISTORY OF THE 



In 1669, a public seal was transmitted by the Duke of 
York to the city authorities, together with a silver mace, 
and gowns for the municipal officers. During the same 




First Englisli Seal of the Piovince. 

year, Lovelace established a meeting for merchants on 
Fridays, between the hours of eleven and twelve, near 
the bridge which crossed the sewer near the foot of 
Broad street. This was the site of the future Exchange. 
The hour of meeting was announced by the ringing of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 163 

the stadt-huys bell, and the mayor was ordered to see 
that no one disturbed the assembly. 

In the same year, an incident occurred which proves 
how absolute was the authority exercised by the gover- 
nor and council. Marcus Jacobson, a Swede from Dela- 
ware Bay, who had shown himself refractory under the 
new regime, was brought to Manhattan, tried by a spe- 
cial commission, and sentenced to death — then whipped, 
branded and sent to Barbadoes to be sold into slavery — 
his first sentence having been commuted through the 
mercy of the governor. 

In 1670, Lovelace purchased Staten Island from the 
Indians, who complained that they had never received 
full payment from the Dutch, for the consideration of 
four hundred fathoms of wampum, together with several 
axes, kettles and coats, and thus secured the island to the 
property of the English government. He also approved 
the race-course which had been instituted by Kicolls at 
Hempstead, and directed that races should take place 
there in future during the month of May. In 1673, 
he established the first mail between New York and 
Boston, consistmg of a single messenger, who was 
ordered to go and return with letters and packages once 
within a month, for a "more speedy intelligence and 
" dispatch of affairs." 

In 1672, Charles II., at the instigation of the Frencl 
government, proclaimed war against Holland. T",- , 
Dutch availed themselves of the opportunity to end'-.- or 
to regain their lost province, and fitted out a squadron 
of five ships, under the command of Admirals Benckes 
and Evertsen and Captains Colve, Boes and Van Zye. to 



164 HISTORTOFTHE 

sail against New York. The news of the expedition 
soon reached the city. Instead of making preparations 
to resist it, the governor placed the fort in the hands of 
Captain John Manning, and set out for Albany to regu- 
late the Indian difficulties which had sprung up in that 
quarter. News was soon received that the Dutch fleet 
had already arrived off the coast of Virginia, and Man- 
ning immediately dispatched a messenger to the gover- 
nor, who was then visiting in Westchester county, to 
hasten his return. He came at once, and commenced 
preparations for defence. The fort, which numbered 
forty-six guns, was placed in a posture of resistance, a 
force of four or five hundred men was mustered from 
among the citizens, and the volunteers were drilled in 
order to be in readiness for the expected attack. But 
the enemy did not make their appearance ; and after 
waiting a short time, the governor disbanded the troops 
and set out on a journey to Connecticut. He had not 
waited long enough. On the 29th of July, 1673, the 
hostile fleet appeared off Sandy Hook. Manning 
instantly dispatched a messenger with the news to the 
governor, and set to work to beat up recruits, both in 
the city and country. His efforts were unavailing ; the 
settlers in the country refused to aid him, while the city 
volunteers, who themselves were Dutch, went to work 
to spike the guns, and to render all possible assistance 
to the enemy. The fort contained but about fifty sol- 
diers, most of whom were ignorant of the art of war, and 
the city was in a defenceless condition. The ships., 
meanwhile, quietly sailed up the bay, and anchored at 
Staten Island on the 30th inst. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 165 

The position of affairs certainly seemed hopeless enough, 
and Manning, who lacked both energy and courage, was 
not the man to retrieve it. He dispatched a messenger 
to the ships to inquire why they came in so hostile a 
marmer to disturb the peace of his majesty's subjects ; 
while, at the same time, the admirals of the expedition 
dispatched a trumpeter with a summons to the said 
subjects to surrender. 'The messengers crossed each 
other on the way. Manning at once acknowledged the 
receipt of the summons, and promised to give them a 
definitive answer on the return of his messengers. 
By way of reply, the Dutch admirals weighed anchor 
and sailed up the bay ; then, anchoring opposite the 
fort, they sent word to Manning that half an hour 
would be given him to answer their summons. He asked 
till the following morning to consider. The request was 
refused him, and he was told that, after half an hour, a 
fire would be opened upon the fort. The half-hour 
passed without repl}^, when the Dutch kept their word, 
and opened a heavy cannonade on the English, which 
killed and wounded several of their men. Though many 
of the guns were in order, and an effective fire might 
have been poured on the ships, not a shot was fired in 
return. It was not long before six hundred men, under 
the command of Captain Anthony Colve, landed on the 
island, and ranged themselves on the Commons prepara- 
tory to marching into the city. The terrified Manning 
beat a parley, and sent Captain Carr, Thomas Lovelace, 
and Thomas Gibbs, to negotiate with Colve ; but as they 
had nothing definite to offer, that functionary detained 
Lovelace and Gibbs as hostages, and sent Carr back to 



166 HISTORY OF THE 

the fort, with a summons to Manning to surrender 
within a quarter of an liour. But this summons was 
never received. Carr, tliinking it his best pohey to pro- 
vide for his own safety, made his way to the city gates, 
and fled from the town without troubling himself about 
his master. At the end of the time appointed, a trum- 
peter was sent for an answer to the summons, and was 
told in reply that none had Ijeen received. " This is 
" the third time they have fooled us," exclaimed Colve 
in a passion, as he ordered his men to march without 
delay. They proceeded down Broadway, and, as they 
approached the fort, were met by a messenger from 
Manning, ofTering a full surrender on condition that the 
garrison should be allowed to march out with all the hon- 
ors of war. To this Colve assented, and after witness- 
ing the exit of the English intruders, the Dutch troops 
continued their march down Broadway and again took 
possession of the fort and of New York. The name of 
the city was changed to New Orange, while the fort 
became Fort William Hendrick. But the Dutch did not 
keep their promise. The English soldiers were seized 
and imprisoned, their baggage plundered, and many of 
them carried away to foreign parts in the Dutch ships of 
war. The goA'ernor was permitted to return with the 
Dutch admirals to Europe. 

The news of so easy a capture occasioned the deepest 
mortification to the English government, as well as to 
the absent governor and the New England colonies, and 
on the recovery of the province in 1674, Manning was 
tried in New York, by court-martial, for cowardice and 
treachery. The charges brought against him were, that 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 167 

he had not put the garrison in a fitting state of defence ; 
but treated with the enemy, suffered their ships to ap- 
proach and to send their boats ashore without firing upon 
them ; and, finally, struck his flag and surrendered the 
city, although the fort was in a tenable condition and the 
garrison desirous to fight, and let in the enemy without 
conditions, unless to himself. It was also said, and 
believed by many, that he had been bribed by the Dutch 
to surrender the city. In defence, he alleged that he had 
no time to put the fort in a defensive posture ; that he 
treated with the enemy in hopes to delay their attack 
until aid should arrive ; that he did not fire because his 
ambassadors were on board ; that their landing was 
unknown to him, and that they were eight hundred strong, 
while he had but seventy or eighty men in the fort ; that 
it was for this reason that he ordered a flag of truce to be 
raised, but that the English flag was struck without his 
consent ; and that he made no conditions in his own 
favor, but only demanded that the garrison should march 
out with the honors of war. His defence, though rea- 
sonable in many points, proved unavaiUng ; the English 
were smarting under the insult which they had received, 
and piqued that one of their forts should have fiiUen so 
easy a prey to the enemy ; and Manning was found guilty 
of the charges brought against him. His interest at 
court saved him from the sentence of death, but he 
was adjudged to have his sword broken over his 
head by the executioner in front of the City Hall, 
and to be forever incapable of holding any civil or 
military office in the gift of the crown. Lovelace 
was also reprimanded by the English government, 



168 HISTORY OF THE 

and his estate ordered to be confiscated for tlie benefit 
of the Duke of York, his creditor. 

The Dutch having thus regained possession of the 
city, the commanders of the fleet issued a new cliarter, 
restoring the former municipal government. Antliony 
De Milt was appointed schout, with three burgomasters 
and five schepens. Courts of Justice were established 
at Delaware Bay, Albany, and Esopus, and the magis- 
trates of the provincial towns were required to appear 
at New Orange and swear allegiance to the Dutch 
government. The squadron soon returned to Holland 
accompanied by Lovelace, leaving Captain Anthony 
Colve in command of the province. 

The Dutch now reasserted their right to the province 
of New Netherland, as defined by the boundaries agreed 
upon in the Stuyvesant treaty, and Colve received a 
commission from Benckes and Evertsen, the admirals of 
the fleet, authorizing him to govern the said territory. 
His rule was brief, but energetic. Taking a lesson from 
the condition in which the fort had been left by his pre- 
decessor, he determined that the next assailant should 
not find it so easy a capture, and vigorously set to work 
to place it in a defensive condition. The city palisades 
and the works of the fort were repaired, the buildings 
and inclosures that had accumulated about and crowded 
upon the latter were ordered to be removed, the guns 
were put in order, the ammunition looked to, and the 
citizen companies and watch drilled for active service. 
All exportation of provisions from the city for the next 
eight months was forbidden, not more than two of the 
sloops usually engaged in trading on the shores of the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 169 

Hudson were suffered to be absent at the same time, and 
every precaution was taken to strengtlien the city and 
enable it to resist an attack. It was supposed, and not 
without reason, that the English would not give up this 
coveted territory without a struggle, and Colve, himself 
a military man, resolved that this should not be an easy 
one. Everything assumed a military character. The 
Commons became the place of general parade. The schout, 
at the head of the general militia, reviewed them every 
day before the stadt-huys at the head of Coenties Slip. 
Every evening, at six, he received the keys of the city 
from the officers of the fort, and proceeded with a guard 
of six men to lock the gates and to place a sentry of 
citizens at the most exposed points. At sunrise, he went 
the rounds again, imlocked the gates, and restored the 
keys to the guard at the fort. At this time the city con- 
tained three hundred and twenty-two houses. 

Soon after Colve assumed the reins of government, a 
charge of witchcraft was brought before him against a 
woman of the city, but the brave old soldier treated it 
with the contempt it deserved. New York was never 
much infested with this plague, which spread so widely 
in the New England States. Yet it is probable that 
some were infected with the contagion, for in 1665, 
Ealph Hall and his wife, residents of Setauket on Long 
Island, wei'e arraigned befoi-e the city court of assizes on 
a charge of having caused the death of George Wood 
and his child by sorcery. The court, having faith in the 
black art, bound them both over to appear at the next 
sessions, but the affair coming to the ears of Nicolls, they 
were released from all recognizances, and acquitted of the 



170 HISTORY OF THE 

charge. In 1670, a similar accusation against a widow 
named Katharine Harrison residing in Westchester, was 
brought before the court. This woman had formerl_y 
been a resident of Weathersfield, Connecticut, where 
she had been tried for witchcraft, found guilty by the 
jury, pardoned by the judge, and ordered to remove 
from the colony. The odium followed her to her new 
abode ; and her neighbors, fearful of the presence of so 
dangerous a person, entreated that she might be driven 
from the town. She was ordered by the court to give 
security for her good behavior, and the proceedings 
against her were finally dropped. Such was the rise and 
progress of witchcraft in New York. Two other cases 
occurred on Long Island which were referred to the IS^ew 
England courts for trial, but they resulted in nothing. 

Under the energetic rule of the warlike Colve, it is 
probable that the Enghsh would have had some difficulty 
in retaking the city by force of arms. But the days of 
the Dutch rulers were numbered. On the 9th of Feb- 
ruary, 1674, a treaty of peace between England and 
the States General was signed at Westminster, which re- 
stored the country to its former possessors. It was not. 
however, until the 10th of November of the same year 
that the city was finally ceded to the English, and the 
Dutch definitively dispossessed of the beautiful province 
which they had discovered and peopled, and of which 
they had retained possession for nearly sixty years. On 
that day the fort was surrendered to Major Edmund 
Andros, who had been appointed governor by the Duke 
of York. The fort again became Fort James, and the 
inhabitants of the province were absolved from their 



CITY OF NEW TURK. 171 

oaths of allegiance to the States General, and required to 
swear fealty to the King of England. The new governor 
and his r^ouncil, which consisted of John Lawrence, 
Captain Brockholst and Captain Dyre, met immediately 
after the surrender of the fort, and restoring the English 
form of municipal government, ordered that the magis- 
trates who were in office at the time of the capture of 
the city should continue their duties six months longer. 
In the course of the following year, Andros appointed 
Wilham Dervall, mayor ; Grabriel Minvielle, Nicholas De 
Meyer, Thomas Gibbs, Thomas Lewis, and Stephanus 
Van Cortlandt, aldermen ; and John Sharpe, sheriff. He 
also decreed that four aldermen should constitute a court 
of sessions. 

It may not be amiss to close this chapter with a notice 
of the early settlers who successively filled the may- 
oralty from the appointment of Thomas Willett in 
1665 to the recapture of the city by the Dutch, and 
whose names have been omitted in the rapid progress of 
our history. Names and documents are always uninter- 
esting unless connected with events and associations ; 
and mere lists of city officials can have little interest for 
the general reader. Thomas Delavall, the successor of 
Willett in 1666, and who afterwards filled the mayor's 
chair in 1671 and 1678, was a captain in the English 
army, who accompanied NicoUs in his invasion of the 
city, and soon became a prominent man in the province. 
He engaged in mercantile pursuits, and purchased seve- 
ral estates in Manhattan and the vicinity, among which 
were Great and Little Barent's, now Barn Islands, in the 
Hellegat ; together with a cherry orchard of several 



J.72 HISTORY OF THE 

acres in the neighborhood of Franklin Square. From 
this orchard, Cherry street derives its name. He died 
in 1682, leaving several children, who married and 
became permanent residents of the city. 

Cornelius Steenwyck, mayor in 1668-69-70-82-83, 
was a thorough-bred Netherlander, strongly attached to 
all the customs of the Fatherland, and distinguished for 
his inflexible integrity. He was a merchant, and one of 
the wealthiest and most influential men in the colony. His 
popularity was unbounded, as well among the English 
as the Dutch portion of the community ; on one occasion, 
he was appointed governor pro tern, during the tempo- 
rary absence of Lovelace, and he was always found faith- 
ful to his oaths of allegiance. He died in 1684, leaving 
several children. His widow afterwards married Domine 
Selinus, the clergyman of Brooklyn. 

Matthias NicoU, an English lawyer, who emigrated 
from Islip in Northamptonshire in 1660, was Steen- 
wyck's successor. He held the office but for one year. 
Previously to this appointment, he had officiated as the 
first English secretary O'f the province under Col. Nicolls. 
He afterwards became one of the judges of the Supreme 
Court, and removed to Queens county, where he pur- 
cha.sed large tracts of land, and died in 1687, leaving 
numerous descendants. 

John Lawrence, mayor of the city at the time of its 
surrender to the Dutch, and subsequently in 1691, emi- 
grated from England to the province during the admin- 
istration of Kieft, and became one of the patentees of 
the towns of Hempstead and Flushing. He took up his 
residence in the city, where he had a house and store on 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 173 

>hc river shore, between Hanover and Wall streets ; and 
engaged in trade on the Hudson River. He died in the 
city in 1699, leaving several children. 

William Dervall. the first mayor of the city after its 
restoration, was an English merchant who had removed 
from Boston to New York during the administration of 
Nicolls, and set up a store in company with his brother 
near the lower end of Pearl street. His wife was the 
daughter of Mayor Delavall, from whom he inherited 
Great Barn Island, together with a large estate at Har- 
lem. He was shrewd but upright, and was much 
esteemed by his fellow-citizens. 

The province thus passed away forever from the hands 
of its Dutch rulers, but many years elapsed before the 
Holland manners and customs were uprooted, and New 
York became in truth an English city. Indeed, some of 
them linger still, and New York yet retains a marked 
individuality which distinguishes it from the eastern 
cities, and savors strongly of its Dutch origin. The 
memorials of the Dutch dynasty have fallen one by one ; 
the Stuy vesant pear-tree was long the last token in being 
of the flourishing nation which so long possessed the city 
of New Amsterdam — the last link that connected the 
present -with the traditional past — and this fell, in 
1867, before the slow decay of age. But the broad and 
liberal nature of the early settlers is still perpetuated in 
the cosmopolitan character of the city, in its freedom 
from exclusiveness, in its religious tolerance, and in its 
extended views of men and things. Though New York 
has many faults, yet they are not petty ones. There is 
no city on the western continent in which men more 



174 



HISTORY OF THE 



naturally find their own level. Deeds find more respect 
than persons, and each one rises and falls, if not by his 
own merit, at least by his own endeavors. Most of the 
other cities of the United States have descended in a 
direct line from the pioneer settlers, retaining all the 
types of the character which first gave them, birth ; in 
New York, this primitive type, instead of being predo- 
minant, is blended with all the races of the earth ; and 
if it be true, as one of our most eminent philosophers 
asserts, that a mixture of many materials makes the best 
mortar, there is no reason to regret it. The Dutch lan- 
guage has disappeared, the Dutch signs have passed 
away from the streets, and the Dutch manners and cus- 
toms are forgotten, save in a few strongholds of the 
ancient Knickerbockers. But the Dutch spirit has not 
yet died out — enough of it is still remaining to enable 
New York to trace its lineage in a direct line to its 
parent — New Amsterdam. 




New York in 1G74. 



CHAPTER V 



New Amsterdam in the Old Dutch Colony Times. 

Before proceediug further with the thread of our his- 
tory, it may be well to glance at the condition of New 
Amsterdam in the old Dutch Colony times, before its 
primitive manners and customs had been adulterated by 
English innovations. In the beginning of the settlement, 
the people had been forced to accommodate themselves 
to the necessities of a new country, and their houses, 
furniture and apparel had necessarily been of the rudest 
kind. But, at the time of which we write, the city had 
grown into a state of comparative wealth, and the 
inhabitants were beginning to enjoy the comforts of 
affluence, according to the standard of the times. This 
differed somewhat from the modern estimate ; a burgher 
worth a thousand dollars was esteemed rich ; and his 
neighbor worth five hundred, a man in easy circum- 
stances. But money has but a relative value, and 
expenses were graded in conformity with the standard 
of wealth. 

In the beginnino; of the settlement, as we have 



176 



HISTORY OF THE 




Household in the old Dutch Colony times. 



already said, the houses were one story in height with 
two rooms on a floor. The chimneys were of wood, 
and the roots were thatched with reeds and straw. The 
furniture was of the rudest kind, carpets were unknown, 
as indeed they continued to be for many years after ; 
the stools and tables were hewn out of rough planks by 
the hands of the colonists ; wooden platters and pewter 
spoons took the place of more expensive crockery, and 
naught but the indispensable chest of homespun linen and 
a stray piece of plate or porcelain, a treasured memento 
of the Fatherland, was seen to remind one of civilization. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



17^ 



As the forests became cleared away, and tlic coloii}- 
increased, the style of living experienced a material 
change. The straw roofs and wooden chimneys were 
deemed unsafe, and were ordered to be removed ; and 
the settlers commenced to build their houses of brick 
and stone. For some time, the bricks were imported 
from Holland ; in the administration of Stuyvesant, how- 
ever, some enterprising citizens established a brick-yard 
on the island ; and the material henceforth became pop- 
ular in the colony. The northern pai't of the island fur- 
nished abundance of stone. Many of the wooden houses 
had checkerwork fronts, or rather gable ends of small 
black and yellow Dutch bricks, with the date of their 
erection inserted in iron figures, facing the street. Most 
of the houses, indeed, fronted the same way ; the roofs 
were tiled or shingled, and invariably surmounted with 
a weathercock. The windows were small and the doors 
large ; the latter were divided horizontally, so that, the 




Dutch Grocery in Broad street. 
12 



178 niSTORYOFTHE 

upper half being swung open, the burgher could lean 
on the lower and smoke his pipe in peaceful contempla- 
tion. Not less comfortable were the social " stoeps/' 
and the low, projecting eaves, beneath which the 
friendly neighbors cojigregated at twilight to smoke 
their long pipes and discuss the price of beaver-skins. 
These mstitutions have come down to our own times, 
and are still known and appreciated in the suburbs of 
the city. 

Every house was surrounded by a garden, varying in 
size according to the locality, but usually large enough 
to furnish accommodations for a horse, a cow, a couple 
of pigs, a score of barn-door fowls, a patch of cabbages, 
and a bed of tulips. Owing in part to the short-sighted 
policy which discouraged the introduction of English 
horses and cattle into the province, the stock had greatly 
deteriorated. The horses were branded with the name 
of the owner, and turned out in summer to graze on the 
waste lands in the upper part of the island, where they 
bred rapidly ; then were again collected and housed in 
autumn. At a later period, horses were imported from 
the New England settlements, particularly the Narra- 
gansett pacers, which were the most highly valued. 
Carriages were unknown, and it was not until after the 
R,evolution that these came into general use. Lum- 
ber wagons and sleighs were the only modes of convey- 
ance in the old Dutch colony times. In 1G96, the first 
hackney coach was introduced into the city ; later, one 
horse chaises came to be used by the wealthiest inhabi- 
tants ; but, with one or two exceptions, none but the 
royal governors aspired to the luxury of a private carriage. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 1Y9 

Carpets, too, were almost unknown in the colony up 
to the period of the Revolution. Now and then, a piece 
of drugget, ostentatiously dignified by the name of car- 
pet, and made to serve for the purpose of a crumb- 
cloth, was found in the houses of the wealthiest burghers, 
but even these were not in general use. The snow-white 
floor was sprinkled with fine sand, which was curiously 
stroked with a broom into fantastic curves and angles. 
This adornment pertained especially to the parlor ; a 
room that was only used upon state occasions. The first 
carpet said to have been introduced into the city was 
found in the house of the pirate, Kidd, this was merely 
a good-sized Turkey rug, worth about twenty-five 
dollars. 

The most ornamental piece of furniture in the parlor 
was usually the bed, with its heavy curtains and valance 
of camlet and killeminster. Mattresses were as yet 
unheard of ; in their stead was used a substantial bed 
of live geese feathers, with a lighter one of down for a 
covering. These beds were the pride of the notal^le 
Dutch matrons ; in these and the well-filled chests of 
home-made linen lay their claims to skill in housewifery. 

The beds and pillows were cased in check coverings ; , 
the sheets were of home-spun linen, and over the whole 
was thrown a patch-work bed-quilt, made of bits of 
calico cut in every conceivable shape, and tortured 
into the most grotesque patterns that could possibly be 
invented by human ingenuity. 

In a corner of the room stood a huge oaken, iron- 
bound chest, filled to overflowing with household linen, 
spun by the feminine part of the family, which they 



180 HISTORY OF THE 

alwajs delighted in displaying before visitors. At a later 
date, this gave place to "the chest of drawers" of our 
grandmothers' times — huge piles of drawers, placed one 
upon the other and reaching to the ceiling, with brass 
rings over the key-holes to serve as knobs. The escri- 
toire, too, with its complication of writing-desk, drawers, 
and mysterious pigeon-holes, came into use about the 
same time ; but both of these were unknown to the 
genuine Knickerbockers. 

In another corner stood the Holland cupboard, with 
its glass doors, displaying the family plate and porcelain. 
The latter was rare, and, as a general rule, was "wisely 
" kept for show." Plate was more common, and there 
were few wealthy families that had not their porringers, 
tankards and ladles of massive silver, for plated ware 
was then unknown. A few had tea-services of china — 
tea-pots and sugar-bowls the size of a nut-shell, witli 
cups and saucers that might have served for a fairy, 
adorned with quaint devices of men and things in the 
most impossible positions, which all can appreciate who 
have borne witness to the extreme fidelity of the paint- 
ings of the Celestials. But more generally, the fragrant 
bohea was sipped from the humbler pewter mugs, which 
were ranged in shining rows upon the kitchen dressers. 
Wooden-ware, too, was in universal use, and it was not 
until several years after that even the coarsest delf or 
earthen-ware was imported into the colony. Glass-ware 
was almost unknown ; punch was drank in turns by the 
company, from a huge bowl, and beer from a tankard 
of silver. Sideboards were not introduced until after 
the Revolution, and were exclusively of English origin. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 181 

Sofas, couches, lounges, and that pecuharly American 
histitution, the rockhig-chair, were things unknown to 
our Dutch ancestors. Their best chairs were of Russia 
leather, profusely ornamented witli double and triple 
rows of brass nails, and so straight and high-backed as to 
preclude the possibility of a moment's repose. Besides 
these, the parlor was commonly decorated with one or 
two chairs with embroidered backs and seats, the work 
of the daughters of the family. After the capture of 
the province, cane-seat and mahogany chairs were intro- 
duced, liut these were unknown to the primitive Hol- 
landers. The kitchen chairs were usually rush-bottomed. 
Couches and high-backed settees were introduced about 
the time of the Revolution — sofas are an innovation of 
modern times. Mahogany had not yet come into use ; 
nearly all the furniture was made of oak, maple, or nut- 
wood. 

Tables were not yet ranked in the category of orna- 
mental furniture. The round tea-table, indeed, with the 
leaf turning up perpendicularly, like a Chinese fan, occu- 
pied a conspicuous place in the corner of the parlor ; 
but this room was sacred to the social gatherings, so much 
in vogue among the Knickerbockers, denominated "tea- 
parties," which may account for its presence. The great, 
square dining-table, with leaves upheld by extended 
arms, stood in the kitchen for daily use. Japanned tea- 
tables and card-tables were introduced at a later date. 

Some half-dozen clocks were to be found in the settle- 
ment, with about the same number of silver watches ; 
but as these were scarcely ever known to go, their exist- 
ence was of very little practical consequence. No watch- 



182 HISTORY OF THE 

maker had yet found it to his interest to emigrate, and 
the science of horology was at a low ebb in the colony. 
The flight of time long continued to be marked by sun- 
dials and hour-glasses ; indeed, it is only siiace the Revo- 
lution that clocks have come into general use. About 
1720, the corner-clocks, consisting of cases reaching 
from the floor to the ceiling, with the dial at the top 
and the pendulum swinging almost at the bottom were 
introduced. These were all imported, nor were any 
manufactured in the country until within a comparatively 
recent date. 

Small looking-glasses in narrow black frames with 
ornamented corners were in general use. Two or three 
of the wealthiest burghers were the possessors of large 
mirrors, in two plates, the upper one elaborately orna- 
mented with flowers and gilding ; but these were objects 
of luxury to which but few could aspire. Pictures were 
plentiful, if we may believe the catalogues of household 
furniture of the olden times ; but these pictures were 
wretched engravings of Dutch cities and naval engage- 
ments, with family portraits at five shillings a head, which 
were hung at regular intervals upon the parlor walls. 
The window curtains were generally of flowered cliintz, 
of inferior quality, simply run upon a string. Yet among 
these, as in the wearing apparel and the hangings of the 
beds, were sometimes found specimens of costly India 
stuffs, which had found their way, through the Dutch 
East India Company to these distant shores, and many 
rare articles of Eastern luxury thus floated in the wake 
of commerce to the homes of the wealthy burghers. 

Stoves were never dreamed of by the worthy Knijk- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 183 

erbockers, but in their stead they had the cheerful fire- 
phxce — sometimes in the corner, sometimes extending 
almost across the length of the room — with its huge 
back-log. and glowing fire of hickory wood. The shovel 
and tongs stood, one in each corner, keeping guard over 
the brass-mounted andirons which supported the blazing 
pile. In front was the brass fender, with its elaborate 
ornaments ; and a curiously wrought fire-screen stood in 
the corner. Marble mantels had never yet been thought 
of ; but the chimney-pieces were inlaid with parti-colored 
Dutch tiles, representing all sorts of scriptural and apoc- 
ryphal stories. The kitchen fire-places were less preten- 
tious, and of an immense size, so large that they would 
ahnost have sufficed to roast an ox whole. Over the 
fire swung the hooks and trammels, designed for the 
reception of the immense iron cooking pots, long since 
superseded by the modern stoves and ranges. The chil- 
dren and negroes grouped in the spacious chimney cor- 
ners, cracking nuts and telling stories by the light of the 
blazing pine knots, while the " vrouws '' turned the spin- 
ning-wheel, and the burghers smoked their long pipes 
and silently watched the wreaths of smoke as they curled 
above their heads. At nine they regularly said their 
prayers, commended themselves to the protection of the 
good St. Nicholas, and went to bed to rise with the dawn. 
So regular was their lives that the lack of time-pieces 
made but little difference. The model citizens rose at 
cock crowing, breakfasted with the dawn, and went about 
their usual avocations. When the sun reached the " noon- 
" mark," diimer was on the table. This was strictly a 
family meal ; dinner parties were unheard of, and the 



184 HISTORYOFTHE 

neighbor who should have dropped in without ceremony 
would have been likely to have met an indifferent wel- 
come. But this apparent want of sociality was amply 
atoned for by the numerous tea-parties. After dinner, 
the worthy Dutch matrons would array themselves 
in their best linsey-jackets and petticoats of their own 
spinning, and, putting a half-finished worsted stocking 
into the capacious pocket which hung down from their 
girdle, with their scissors, pin-cushion and keys, outside 
their dress, sally forth to a neighbor's house to "take 
tea." Here they plied their knitting-needles and their 
tongues at the same time, discussed the village gossip, 
settled their neighbors' affairs to their own satisfaction, 
and finished their stockings in time for tea, which was on 
the table at six o'clock precisel}-. This was the occasion 
for the display of the family plate and the Lilliputian 
cups of rare old china, out of which the guests sipped 
the fragrant bohea, sweetening it by an occasional bite 
from the huge lump of loaf sugar which was laid invari- 
ably by the side of each plate, while they discussed the 
hostess' apple-pies, doughnuts and waffles. Tea over, 
the party donned their cloaks and hoods, for bonnets 
were not, and set out straightway for home in order to 
be in time to superintend the milking and look after 
their household affairs before bed-time. 

As we have already said, the Dutch ladies wore no 
bonnets, but brushed their hair back from their fore- 
heads and covered it with a close-fitting cap of muslin 
or calico ; over this they wore, in the open air, hoods of 
silk or taffeta, elaborately quilted. Their dress consisted 
of a jacket of cloth or silk, and a number of short petti- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 185 

coats of every conceivable hue and material, quilted in 
fanciful figures. If the pride of the Dutch matrons lay 
in their beds and linen, the pride of the Dutch maidens 
lay equally iu their elaborately wrought petticoats, which 
were their own handiwork, and usually constituted their 
only dowry. The wardrobe of a fashionable lady usually 
contained from ten to twenty of these, of silk, camlet, 
cloth, drugget, India stuff and a variety of other 
materials, all closely quilted, and costing from five to 
thirty dollars each. They wore blue, red, and green 
worsted stockings of their own knitting, with parti-col- 
ored clocks, together with high-heeled leather shoes. No 
finer material was known until after the Revolution. 
Considerable jewelry was in use among them in the 
shape of rings and brooches. Gold neck and fob chains 
were unknown : the few who owned watches attached 
them to chains of silver or steel ; though girdle-chains of 
gold and silver were much in vogue among the most 
fashionable belles. These were attached to the richly 
bound Bibles and hymn-books and suspended from the 
belt outside the dress, thus forming an ostentatious 
Sunday decoration. For necklaces, they wore numerous 
strings of gold beads ; the poorer classes, in humble 
imitation, encircled their throats with steel and glass 
beads, and strings of Job's tears, the fruit of a plant 
which was famed to possess some medicinal virtues. 

The burghers wore long-waisted coats, with skirts 
reaching almost to the ankles, vests with large flaps, and 
numerous pairs of breeches. The coats and vests were 
trimmed with large silver buttons, and decorated with 
lace. The low-crowned hats were made of beaver 



186 HISTORY OF THE 

— caps of fur and taffeta were also much in vogue. 
Though this costume was somewhat ponderous, the gen- 
tlemen do not appear to have fallen behind the ladies 
in extravagance in dress. Taffeta, plush and velvet were 
the favorite materials for their habiliments ; their shoe- 
buckles and buttons were of solid silver, and they 
sported silver-hilted small swords and ivory-mounted 
canes. A few wore wigs ; though the most wore their 
hair plaited tightly in cues. 

But these garments Were susceptible of indefinite pre- 
servation ; for the every-day apparel was of good sub- 
stantial homespun. Every household had from two to 
six spinning-wheels for wool and flax, whereon the women 
of the family expended every leisure moment. Looms, 
too, were in common use, and piles of home-spun cloth 
and snow-white linen attested to the industry of the 
active Dutch maidens. Hoards of home-made stuffs 
were thus accumulated in the settlement, sufficient to last 
till a distant generation. Cotton cloth was a fabric 
unknown. The women spun and wove, milked and 
churned, and attended to their household matters ; the 
men traded with the natives or the other colonies, or 
kept their shops in their own city — no one was idle. 
They made no haste to be rich, were not given to specu- 
lation in bank stock or real estate, or any other of those 
schemes for making a fortune in the twinkling of an eye 
that only originate in the brain of the active and adven- 
turous Yankees — that, their phlegmatic temperament 
forbade — but they realized the fable of the hare and the 
tortoise, and made their way up the ladder of fortune 
slowly but surely. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 187 

Books were rare luxuries iu these times ; with the 
exception of the Hbraries of the domine and the doctor, 
Bibles and prayer-books constituted the sole literature of 
the settlement. These were objects of considerable dis- 
play, being gorgeously bound, and worn suspended from 
the girdle by gold and silver chains of considerable value. 
The intellectual wants of the community were satisfied 
by the weekly discourses of the domine in the church of 
St. Nicholas, as yet the only one in the city. Thither 
the farmers drove from their bouweries on Sundays, 
with their wives and children arrayed in their best, 
and, leaving their farm-wagons upon the Bowling 
Green, turned their horses loose to graze on the grassy 
hill-slope outside the fort during the hours of service. 
In these hours, profound silence was enjoined upon the 
colony; the remainder of the day was given to the 
Indians and negroes for recreation. But, though the 
Reformed Dutch Church within the walls of the fort was 
the only one as yet erected in New Amsterdam, it must 
not be inferred that there was a corresponding unanimity 
of religious opinion. Numerous religious organizations 
were already in existence, which, restrained by the 
repressive pohcy of Stuyvesant, were only waiting the 
advent of a more tolerant government to erect churches 
and chapels of their own. The service of the Church of 
England had already been performed by an English chap- 
lain in the chapel in the fort during the administrations 
of Nicolls and Lovelace ; the Lutherans and French Cal- 
vinists also had preachers of their own. The prevailing 
religious denomination was the Dutch Calvinist ; but 
there were a few Episcopahans, a few Roman Catholics, 



188 HISTORY OF THE 

some Anabaptists, some Independents, several Jews, a 
number of Quakers, and a great many of no faith at all. 
At the time of the cession of the province to the English, 
no less than eighteen different languages were spoken in 
the city. Its religious tolerance had made it the refuge 
of the persecuted of every sect and clime, while its com- 
mercial advantages had attracted enterprising adven- 
turers from all parts of the world, and had thus laid the 
foundation of a cosmopolitan city. All this tended to pro- 
duce greater breadth of view and liberalit}^ of sentiment 
than was to be found in the Xew England colonies, 
where but one sect was tolerated, and which were made 
up almost exclusively of a single nation. 

An outline of the streets of New Amsterdam at the 
time of the surrender to the English in 1664, will indi- 
cate the genealogy of the present streets of the city. A 
minute account of the residents, with the location of their 
property, which would extend beyond the scope of the 
present work, has already been given by Mr. Valentine 
in his valuable history. 

Beginning at the ferry, along tlie road which led to 
the water-gate at the eastern extremity of the city-wall, 
was the Smit's Vly or Valley, so called from a black- 
smith by the name of Cornelius Clopper, who set up his 
forge on the corner of Maiden Lane and Pearl street, 
where he intercepted the custom of the Long Island 
farmers, on their way to the city from the ferry. This 
road ran along the high water mark, and, consequently, 
was only built upon one side. 

Next came Hoogh straat, which extended along the 
river shore, the line of which is marked now by the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 189 

north side of Pearl between Wall aud William streets, 
and both sides of Stone between William and Broad 
streets. On the north side of Pearl between Broad and 
William streets, extending thence along the shore to 
Wall street was the Waal or " Sheet Pile street'" built to 
protect the City Hall which fronted it on the northwest 
corner of Pearl street and Coenties Shp, from the wash- 
ing of the tides. 

Still continuing on the road along the shores of the 
river was the W^ater Side, extending along the northern 
side of Pearl from Broad street to Whitehall, in front 
of the old church, erected outside the walls of the fort 
for Domine Bogardus in the days of Wouter Van Twiller. 
This terminated in Perel street, which ran from White- 
hall to State street. About the Battery were a few scat- 
tered buildings, among others, the house and store of 
Jacob Leisler on the west side of Whitehall street, 
between Pearl and State streets, and the old " White 
Hall " of Governor Stuyvesant which gave its name to 
the first named street. 

Beginning at the east side of Whitehall above Stone 
street and extending to Heere straat or Broadway was 
" T' Marckvelt," afterwards Marketfield street, so called 
from the Bowling Green which fronted it, and which was 
then used at stated times for a cattle fair or market. At 
the western extremity of this street began Heere straat, 
the ancestor of the present Broadway, which extended to 
the west or land gate of the city wall, along the southerly 
side of which ran Wall street to the East River. 

In the interior of the city, were the Heere graft, the 
inlet from which sprung the present Broad street, 



190 HISTORY OF THE 

extending from the river to Beaver street, and the 
Prince graft, the continuation of the same from Beaver 
to Garden street or Exchange Place, above which was an 
open common, used as a sheep pasture. From its inter- 
section with these, an open ditch marked the course of 
the Beaver graft to Broadway, on each side of which, 
buildings were erected. 

Beginning at Broad, and extending through Stone to 
Whitehall streets was Brouwer or Brewer straat, so called 
from having been the site of a number of breweries. In 
this street, stone pavements were first laid in the city, 
whence its future name. From the East River to Broad- 
way ran T' Maagde Paatje, or the Maiden's Path. 

From the bridge that crossed the inlet at Broad street 
ran Brugh or Bridge straat to Whitehall, on the corner 
of which was the house and store of Cornelius Steen- 
wyck, the principal merchant of New Amsterdam. 
Beginning in the middle of Bridge street and extending 
to Stone street, parallel with Whitehall, was Winckel 
street, or the street of tlie stores, so called from the 
Company's storehouses, which fronted it on the east. 
This is now consolidated into a single block, and 
Winckel street is known only on the maps of olden 
time. Last of all came Smee street, on the line of Wil- 
liam between Heere and Peai"l streets, so called from the 
glass-maker, Jan Smeedes, who is supposed to have been 
its earliest resident. Other streets and lanes soon 
sprung into existence with the new colonization, but 
these long continued to be known as the ancient land- 
marks, and to this day, the line of but one has been 
blotted from the map of the city. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 191 

At this time, and long after, the inhabitants of the city 
continued to be distinguished for their frank good-nature, 
their love of home, and their cordial hospitality. A late 
writer says, speaking on this subject: " Tlie hospitality 
"and simple plainness of New York city down to the 
"period of 1790 and 1800 was very peculiar. All felt 
" and praised it. Nothing was too good and no attention 
"too engrossing for a stranger. The name was a pass- 
" port to everything kind and generous. All who were 
" introduced invited them to their house and board." 
May we not hope that some of the spirit of the ancient 
Knickerbockers still remains to us, and that we are not 
churlish in our welcome of the strangers who visit our 
shores ? 

Yet, despite the staid decorum of the city, it was over- 
flowing with sociality and genial humor. Fast young- 
men, fashionable amusements, late hours, ilnd dissipation 
were wholly unknown, but there was no lack of hearty 
and homely sports. Of holidays, there were abundance ; 
each family had some of its own ; birth-days and marriage 
anniversaries were religiously observed in the family cir- 
cle, and home-ties were thus drawn more closely together. 
Each season, too, brought its own pecuUar festivals, and 
many new ones were invented to meet the social exi- 
gencies. The people held firmly to the old maxim that 
"many hands make light work," and never failed, when 
any extra task presented itself, to make it the occa- 
sion for a social gathering. Thus they had " quilting- 
" bees," "apple-bees," " husking-bees," and " raising- 
"bees," in which the allotted task was soon completed 
by the nimble fingers of the busy workers, who then sat 



192 HISTORY OF THE 

dowu to a supper of chocolate and soft waffles, and ter- 
minated the evenuig by a merry dance. Dancing was a 
favorite amusement ; the negroes danced to the music 
of their rude instruments in the market-place ; and the 
youths and maidens danced at their social gatherings, as 
well as around the May-pole on the Bowling Green on 
ihe first of May. This latter day was also memorable 
for another festival, which is indigenous to New York, 
and has grown into an institution — it was the general 
moving-day, and all who changed their residences 
were expected to vacate the premises which they 
occupied befoi-e the hour of noon. Rents ranged 
from twenty-five to one hundred dollars per annum ; 
the houses being worth from two hundred to a thousand 
dollars each. 

Besides the holidays which we have noted, the Dutch 
had five national festivals which were observed through- 
out the city ; namely, Kerstrydt (Christmas) ; Nieuw jar 
(New Year) ; Paas (the Passover) ; Pinxter (Whitsun- 
tide) ; and Santa Glaus (St. Nicholas or Christ-kinkle 
day). Most of these have come down to our own time 
in a form but slightly varied from the ancient obser- 
vance. Christmas day opened with a general exchange 
of "merry Christmas" greetings throughout the city, 
and he bore off the palm who was the first to offer the 
wish to his neighbor; and this over, "turkey shooting" 
came next in order, and the young men repaired to "the 
" Commons" or to " Beekman's Swamp " to shoot at tur- 
keys which were set up for a target. Each man paid a 
few stuyvers for a shot, and he who succeeded in hitting 
the bird bore it oft" as a prize. The older citizens, mean- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 193 

while, gathered about the young sportsmen, criticising 
their skill, and telling tales of their own youthful dex- 
terity. At home, the day was commemorated by a family 
dinner, after which the children and patriarchs joined 
together in a merry dance, and closed the day with 
gaiety and good humor. 

New Year's day was devoted to the interchange of 
visits. Every house in the city was open, no stranger 
was unwelcome, cake, wine and punch were provided in 
profusion, and the opening year was greeted with gene- 
ral conviviality. It was considered a breach of etiquette 
for any one to omit a single acquaintance in his round of 
calls, and acquaintanceships were renewed and half-dis- 
severed intimacies knotted again in the cordial warmth 
of the New Year's greeting. This custom, which has 
come down to our own times, has now extended to 
other cities, but its origin belongs exclusively tf) New 
York. 

Paas, or Easter and Easter Monday, was once a 
notable festival in the city ; though now it is nearly 
forgotten, except among the children, who still crack 
colored eggs in honor of the occasion. Not many 
years have passed, however, since this holiday enjoyed 
as wholesale an observance as the others we have men- 
tioned, and colored eggs were found upon every table. 
Thougli Easter Sunday is kept as a religious festival, it 
is no longer an occasion for merry-making. 

But Santa Claus day was the best day of all in the 
estimation of the little folks, who, of all others, enjoy 
holidays the most intensely. It is notable, too, for hav- 
ing been the day sacred to St. Nicholas, the patron saint 

13 



194 HISTORY OF THE 

of New York, who presided at the figure-head of the 
first emigrant ship that touched her shores, who gave 
his name to the first church erected within her walls, 
and who has ever since been regarded as having especial 
charge of the destinies of his favorite city. To the 
children, he was a jolly, rosy-cheeked little old man, 
with a low-crowned hat, a pair of Flemish trunk-hose, 
and a pipe of immense length, who drove his rein- 
deer sleigh loaded with gifts from the frozen regions of 
the North over the roofs of New Amsterdam for the 
benefit of good children. Models of propriety were they 
for a week preceding the eventful Christmas eve. When 
it came, they hung their stockings, carefully labelled, that 
the Saint might make no mistakes, in the chimney corner, 
and went early to bed, chanting the Santa Glaus hymn, 
in addition to their usual devotions. For the hymn and 
the translation, which we give entire as a curiosity, we 
are indebted to D. T. Valentine, Esq. 

" Sint Nicholaas, goed lieilig man, 
Trekt uw' besten Tabbard an. 
En reist daarmee naar Amsterdam, 
Van Amsterdam naar Spanje, 
Waar appellen von Oranje, 
En appelen van Granaten, 
RoUen door de Straten. 
Sint Nicholaas, myn goden Vri"ii 1, 
Ilj heb u altyd wel gediend, 
Als gy my nu wat wilt geben, 
Fal ik u dienen als myn leven." 

TRANSLATION. 

" Saint Nicholas, good holy man, 
Put your best Tabbard on you can, 
And in it go to Amsterdam, 
From Amsterdam to Hispaiije, 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



195 



Where apples bright of Orange, 
And likewise those, pomegranites named. 
Roll through the streets all unreclaimed. 
■ Saint Nicholas, ray dear, good friend, 
To serve you ever was my end ; 
If you me now something will give. 
Serve you I will as long as I live." 

These rhymes, Mr. Valentine tells us, continued to be 
sung among the children of the ancient Dutch families as 
late as the year 1851. But the custom is passing away, 
and the Christmas gifts are now given prosaically without 
legend or tradition. It is to he regretted, for childhood 
is the golden age of illusions, and short as this illusion 
may be, all who have tasted it know how sweet were 
the fruits that grew in the mysterious gardens of the 
good old Santa Claus. Peace to his ashes ! 




auB, the Patron Saint of New Amsterdam. 



CHAPTER VT. 



New York nnder the new Regime— Progress of the City. 

Edmund Andros, afterwards known as the " tyrant of 
" New England," was a man of marked ability, butimpe- 
rious, and despotic in the highest degree. This was 
doubtless owing, in part, to the commands of the Duke 
of York, of whom he was a devoted follower, and who 
had given him instructions to continue the arbitrary 
oourse of policy pursued by the former government. 
No sooner was he installed in his office, than the people, 
hoping some advantage from the change of rulers, 
renewed their petition for an assembly of representatives. 
Andros laid the petition before the Duke of York, and 
strongly advised him to grant it. James, who regarded 
popular assemblies as dangerous and useless, utterly 
refused to listen to their prayer. " What do they want 
" with assemblies ? " said he. " They have the Court of 
" Sessions, presided over by the governor ; or, if this is 
" not enough, they can appeal to me." Such was the 
estimation in which the rights of the people were held 
by their royal masters. As another sample of the spirit 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 197 

of the times, we may quote the remark made a short 
time before by Sir William Berkeley, the governor of 
Virginia, who " thanked God that there were neither free 
"schools nor printing-presses in the colony." "God 
"keep us from both," added he, fervently. And Lord 
Effingham, his successor, was directed on no account to 
suffer the latter to be established. The New England 
colonies, however, enjoyed a representative government, 
and this excited the envy of the New Yorkers, particu- 
larly of the inhabitants of the eastern towns of Long 
Island, who petitioned to be annexed to Connecticut, 
alleging, as a pretext, their New England origin. The 
request was refused, and Andros, intent on enlarging his 
province, attempted to extend its boundaries to the 
Connecticut River — the ancient limit — and repaired to 
Saybrook with several armed sloops to enforce his claim. 
The people immediately prepared for resistance ; and 
Andros, seeing that he must fight or retreat, chose the 
latter, and returned to New York. He afterwards took 
forcible possession of Sagadahoc, a district in Maine 
between the Kennebec and the Penobscot, inhabited by 
a few Dutch settlers. Here, he erected a fort and con- 
stituted the county of Cornwall. Martha's Vineyard and 
Nantucket, and a tract west of the Delaware, extending 
to the Schuylkill, were also included within the limits of 
the province, which contained, at this time, thirty-two 
towns and villages. 

Though forced by the commands of his patron to deny 
to the citizens the political privileges which they so much 
desired, the new governor strove to make amends for 
it by promoting public improvements. Li 1676, he 



198 HISTORY OFTHE 

appointed as mayor, Nicholas De Meyer, a native-born 
Hollander, and one of the most enterprising traders of 
the province. Mayor De Meyer had emigrated from 
Holland at an early age, married the daughter of Hen- 
drick Van Dyck, one of the most influential burghers, 
and grown up with the city, where many of his descen- 
dants are 3fet to be found. 

Ordinances were established by the governor for regu- 
lating the public morals, and promoting the welfare of 
the city. The city gates were ordered to be closed at 
night at nine o'clock, and to be opened at daylight. The 
citizens were required to keep watch by turns, and were 
fined for absence or neglect of duty, and all profanity and 
drunkenness were strictly forbidden. Every citizen was 
ordered to provide himself with a good musket, or fire- 
lock, with at least six charges of powder and ball ; and 
to appear, with good arms, before the captain's colors at 
the first beating of the drum. 

All masters of vessels, on arriving in port, were 
required to give a full list of their passengers to the 
mayor, under penalty of a fine of a beaver-skin for each 
offence. Peddling was forbidden and none were per- 
mitted to sell goods at retail but freemen or burghers of 
the city. For this freedom, the merchants paid six bea- 
vers, and the mechanics two ; unless they kept up an 
establishment therein, all lost it after twelve months' 
absence from the city. Six wine and four beer taverns 
were licensed by the governor, with permission to both 
to sell strong liquors ; the rates of fare being regulated 
as follows : Lodging, three pence and four pence per 
night ; meals, eight pence and a shilling ; brand}', six 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 199 

pence per gill ; French wines, fifteen pence per quart, 
rum, threepence pei- gill ; cider, fourpence per quiirt ; 
beer, threepence per quart ; and mum, sixpence per quart. 
If an Indian was seen drvnik in the street, the tavern- 
keeper from whom he had obtained the liquor was fined ; 
if the latter couldnotbe found, the whole street was forced 
to pay the penalty. No grain was suffered to be distilled, 
unless unfit for flour. Two years after, the excise on 
liquors was removed, and all were permitted to buy or 
sell in quantities exceeding a gallon. 

All owners of vacant lots or ruinous buildings, were 
directed at once to build upon or improve them under 
penalty of seeing them sold at public auction. The tan- 
pits in Broad street were declared a nuisance, and the 
tanners ordered to remove beyond the limits of the city. 
They established themselves along Maiden Lane, which 
was then a marshy valley. A company of four shoe- 
makers, who were also their own tanners, purchased a 
tract of land bounded by Maiden Lane, Broadway, Ann 
street, and a line between William and Gold streets, and 
set up their business there. Henceforth this became 
known as "the Shoemaker's Land ;" and later, in 1696. 
when Maiden Lane was regulated, and the land surveyed 
and divided into town lots, it still retained its original 
title. The tanners were eventually driven from theii 
locality, and forced to take refuge in the "Swamp," in 
the vicinity of Ferry street, of which more hereafter. 

Other improvements, too, were made in Broad street. 
This, which had originally been a little rivulet, conveying 
the water from the marshes above Beaver street to the 
river, was lined with planks and converted into an open 



200 HISTORY OF THE 

sev/er. The uj^per jiart of this drain was called the 
Prince graft ; the lower part, the Heere graft. The fol- 
lowing year, a new dock was built, property-holders 
being taxed for the expense, at one and a half per cent 
a pound. Three hundred and one names are found on 
the list of the tax collector ; one-third of which are Eng- 
lish, four French, and the remainder Dutch. 

Slaughter-houses were ordered to be removed from 
the city and to l^e built over the water at the Smith's 
Fly, near the " Kondeel " or Half-Moon fort at the foot of 
Wall street. Permission was given to all the inhabitants 
to cut wood anywhere on the island a mile distant from 
a habitation. A weekly market was instituted, to be 
held every Saturday in the market-house, at the foot of 
Broad street. A yearly fair for cattle, grain and pro- 
duce was also established, to be held at Breuckelen near 
the ferry on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 
in November ; and on the Thursday, Friday and Satur- 
day following, on the plain before the fort. For the 
better provision of supplies, all persons were exempted 
from arrest for debt while in attendance at these fairs. 

In 1677, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, son of the well 
known OlofFe Stevensen Van Cortlandt, and the first 
native-born mayor of the city, was appointed to tl^e 
mayoralty. Mr. Cortlandt, though still young, being but 
thirty-four years of age when he attained to this position, 
was already a prominent man in the city. He became 
still more so in subsequent events, and we shall meet him 
again in the affair of Leisler. He was a merchant and 
large property-holder, owning the well known "Clover 
Wavtie," south of ^laiden Lane, a large farm near the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 201 

Fresh Water Pond, and a piece of land in the vicinity 
of the present Cortlandt street, which thus obtained its 
name, with a frontage of two hundred and fifty feet on 
Broadway and extending quite down to the river shore ; 
besides hxrge tracts of land on the shores of the North 
River. He died in the year 1701, leaving a lai'ge family, 
the descendants of which are still to be found in the city. 

During this year, seven public wells were constructed 
in the city. These were built in the middle of the streets, 
and were especially designed for security against fires. 
Water was generally scarce and bad. An occasional 
spring of sweet water was found ; the best was in the 
vicinity of the present corner of Chatham and Pearl 
streets, but the march of civilization had not as yet 
extended so far. Many years after, the citizens learned 
to appreciate its virtues, and christened it "the Tea 
" Water Pump." 

The following year, Francois Rombouts was appointed 
mayor. Mayor Rombouts was a Frenchman by birth ; a 
naturalized burgher, and a considerable merchant of the 
city, who had for several years been a prominent poli- 
tician. His house was near the corner of Broadway and 
Rector street, on the site of the present Trinity Church, 
surrounded by extensive grounds extending down to the 
river shore. He held the office of mayor but for one 
year, though he continued to take an active part in poli- 
tics until the time of his death, in 1691. He left one 
daughter, who afterwards married Roger Brett, a mer- 
chant of the city. 

During the brief administration of Mayor Rombouts, 
the citizens received a boon from tlie uovernor which, in 



202 HISTORY OF THE 

a few years, trebled their wealth, and laid the founda- 
tion of the fortunes of New York. A considerable part 
of the country was now under cultivation, and flour was 
becoming an important article of trade. To secure the 
advantages of this commerce to the citizens, Andros 
gi'anted them a monopoly of the bolting of flour, 
together with the exclusive right of exporting it out of 
the province, and forbade all other towns to engage in 
the trade under penalty of the forfeiture of the articles. 
This act excited the greatest indignation among the inland 
towns, who used every effort to procure its repeal. This 
they effected in 1694, six years after its enactment, but, 
during that time, the exports and imports of the city 
had increased from two to more than six thousand 
pounds sterling per annum, the shipping had increased 
from three ships to sixty, and more than six hundred 
new houses had been erected in the city. Lands 
increased to ten times their former value, and a fever 
for speculation broke out among the inhabitants, who 
vainly endeavored to prevent the repeal of this "bolting 
"act," which brought them such golden fruit at the 
expense of their neighbors. During Rombout's admin- 
istration, the shipping of the city consisted of three 
ships, eight sloops, and seven small coasting vessels. In 
the same year an Admiralty Court was first established 
in the province. 

A curious law respecting the Indians is found upon 
the records of 1679. Hitherto, the Indians had been free, 
with the exception of a few slaves that had been brought 
into the province from the Massachusetts Bay colony. It 
was now enacted that all Indians who should come or be 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



203 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 205 

brought into the px'oviuce for the next six months, should 
be sold for the benefit of the government. A lack of 
negro slaves was probably the cause of the enactment 
of this ordinance. The slave trade had long been 
regarded as a legitimate branch of commerce, and there 
was scarcely a household in the city that was not pro- 
vided with from one to a dozen negroes ; yet the demand 
increased with the increase of the settlement, and the 
supply was found to be insufficient. Strict laws were 
enacted to keep this brute force within due bounds ; 
negroes were forbidden to assemble together without 
special permission ; to leave their masters' houses after 
nightfall, or to go beyond the city gates without a pass ; 
yet all these precautions proved unavailing to prevent 
the terrible catastrophe in which the system of slavery 
culminated in 1741. 

In 1680, Captain William Dyre, an Englishman who 
had taken up his residence in the city soon after the acces- 
sion of the English government, was appointed mayor. 
He had been the commander of a naval force dispatched 
in 1612 by Rhode Island for the reduction of Fort Good 
Hope — a fact which did not increase his popularity among 
his adopted citizens. He also held the office of collector 
of customs — an office especially odious to the people. 

Andros, meanwhile, had been compelled to repair 
to England to answer charges brought against him by 
Fenwick and Carteret, the proprietors of the Jerseys, 
who accused him of having interfered with their privi- 
leges. He set sail for Europe in 1680, intrusting the 
government to Anthony Brockholst. The discontent of 
the people increased daily ; they grumbled at the heavy 



206 HISTORY OF THE 

taxes which wore arbitrarily imposed on them, and even 
went so far as to accuse Dyre of levying them without 
authority. On this charge, he was indicted by the gi-and 
jury as a traitor, and was ordered to be tried by a spe- 
cial court. He pleaded that he had acted under the 
duke's commission, and, as this could not be gainsayed. 
he was sent to England for trial, and the port -was left 
without a collector. The complaint was dismissed for 
want of evidence, none of the citizens having seen fit to 
appear as accusers ; but they had accomplished their 
object in getting rid of the officer. Meanwhile, for a 
few months, the port remained free. Cornelius Steen- 
wyck succeeded to the mayoralty. A census of the city 
was taken this year, and it was found to contain two hun- 
dred and seven houses, and two thousand inhabitants. 

Andros soon returned, cleared from the charges of his 
enemies, with instructions to continue the system of tax- 
ation which weighed so heavily upon the citizens. But 
tlie resistance of the people, who went so far as to ques- 
tion the supreme authority of the Duke of York, joined 
with the remonstrances of William Penn, at length 
induced the royal duke to bate something of his preten- 
sions ; and in 1083, Andros was recalled, and Colonel 
Thomas Dongan appointed in his stead, with instructions 
to call a popular assembly. 

Despite his sycophancy to the Duke of York, Andros 
seems to have really had the interests of the province at 
heart, and to have made the best of existing circum- 
stances. He remonstrated with his royal master against 
the commands which he executed with fidelity, and he 
certainly enacted a different rc,Ic in Now York fri m that 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 207 

which he afterwards played in New England. But the 
people, who only saw the power nearest them, were dis- 
posed to impute to him much of the blame which 
belonged in truth to the Duke of York, and they gladly 
received the news of his recall. The fidelity of Andros 
was not forgotten ; on the accession of the Duke of York 
to the throne in 1685, he was knighted and appointed 
royal governor of the colonies of New England ; a posi- 
tion which soon involved him in inextricable difficulties. 
Governor Dongan reached New York on the 25th of 
April, 1683. He was of the Roman Catholic faith ; a fact 
which rendered him at first obnoxious to many ; but his 
firm and judicious policy, his steadfast integrity, and his 
pleasing and courteous address, soon won the affections 
of the people, and made him one of the most popular of 
the royal governors. In accordance with the instruc- 
tions of his superiors, his first act after his arrival was to 
call a general assembly of the people. This long hoped- 
for concession was hailed with delight. On the 17th of 
October, 1683, the first Assembly, consisting of the 
governor, ten councillors, and seventeen representatives 
elected by the people, convened in the city of New York. 
This point gained, the contest continued, and New York, 
the legislative capital of the province, was henceforth the 
scene of bitter contention between the Assembly and the 
royal governors. The first act of this body was to frame 
a Charter of Liberties — the first popular charter of the 
province. This Charter of Liberties ordained "that 
' supreme legislative power should forever reside in the 
" o-overnor, council and people, met in General Assem- 
•'bly ; that every freeholder and freeman might vote foi 



208 HISTORY OF THE 

"representatives without restraint; that no freeman 
" should suffer but by judgment of his peers, and that aL 
"trials should be by a jury of twelve men ; that no tax 
"should be assessed on any pretence whatever, but by 
" the consent of the Assembly ; that no seaman or soldier 
" should be quartered on the inhabitants against their 
will ; that no martial law should exist ; and that no 
" person professing faith in God, by Jesus Christ, should 
" at any time be in any way disquieted or questioned for 
" any difference of opinion in matters of religion." 

The assemblies were to be held at least triennially ; 
New York sending four representatives ; Suffolk, one ; 
Kings, one ; Queens, one ; Richmond, one ; Westchester, 
one ; Albany, two ; Schenectady, one ; Dukes County, 
two ; and Cornwall, one ; the number to be increased at 
the pleasure of the Duke of York. Twenty-seven was 
the maximum number down to the period of the Revo- 
lution. These representatives were free to appoint their 
own time of meeting and of adjournment, and were the 
sole judges of the qualifications of their own members. 
In case of vacancy in the Assembly, the governor was 
to issue summons for a new election. Bills passed by 
this body were submitted to the governor for concur- 
rence, and laws were repealed by the authority that 
made them, with the consent of the Duke of York. One 
of the first acts of the Assembly was the division of the 
province into twelve counties — New York, Richmond, 
Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Orange, Ulster, Albany, West- 
chester, Duchess, Dukt'S and Cornwall. The two latter 
were presently dropped from the list, and ceded to othei 
governments. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 209 

New police regulations were at once established. Sun- 
day laws were enacted ; tavern-keepers were forbidden 
to sell liquor except to travellers, citizens to work, child- 
ren to play in the streets, and Indians and negroes to 
assemble on the Sabbath. Twenty cartmen were licensed 
by the municipal authorities, on condition that they 
should repair the highways gratis whenever called on by 
the mayor, and cart the dirt from the streets, which the 
inhabitants were required to sweep together every Sat- 
urday afternoon beyond the precincts of the city. The 
rate of cartage was fixed at three pence per load to any 
place within the bounds of the city ; beyond which, the 
price was doubled. The cartmen, however, soon proved 
refractory, and a few weeks after, the license system 
was abandoned, and all persons, with the exception of 
slaves, were allowed to act as cartmen. 

On the 8th of December, 1683, the city was divided 

into six wards. The First or South Ward, beginning at 

the river, extended along the west side of Broad to 

Beaver street ; thence westward along Beaver street to 

the Bowling Green ; thence southward by the fort to 

Pearl street ; and thence westward along the river shore 

to the place of starting. The Second or Dock Ward, also 

beginning at the river at the southeast corner of Pearl 

and Broad streets, extended along the shore to Hanover 

Square ; thence northward though William to Beaver 

street ; thence along Beaver to Broad street; thence back 

through Broad to the river shore. The Third or East 

Ward formed a sort of triangle, beginning at the corner 

of Pearl and Hanover Square, and extending along the 

shore to the Half Moon fort at the foot of Wall street ; 
14 



210 HISTORY OF THE 

thence stretching along "Wall to the corner of WilUara 
and thence returning along the east side of William to 
the river. The Fourth or North Ward, beginning at the 
northwest corner of William and Beaver streets, extended 
through the former to the corner of Wall ; thence west- 
erly along the palisades to a line a little beyond Nassau 
street ; thence southerly to Beaver street ; thence easterly 
along Beaver to the first-named point. The Fifth or West 
Ward, beginning at the junction of the Fourth Ward with 
Beaver street, extended northerly along the boundary line 
of the latter to Wall street ; thence along the palisades 
to Broadway ; thence southerly to Beaver street ; thence 
easterly to the point of starting. The Sixth or Out 
Ward comprised all the farms and plantations outside the 
city walls, including the town of Harlem. Each of these 
wards was authorized to elect an alderman and council- 
man annually to represent them in the city goA^ernment. 
The governor and council retained the appointment of 
the mayor in their own hands ; it was not, indeed, until 
long after the Revolution that this office was made elec- 
tive by the people. 

The following year, a monopoly of packing flour and 
making bread for exportation was granted to the citizens 
in addition to the previous "bolting act." At this time, 
there were twenty-four bakers in the province. These 
were divided into six classes ; a class being appointed 
for each secular day of the week. The weight and price 
of loaves was also regulated ; a white loaf weighing 
twelve ounces being valued at six stuyvers in wampum. 
This year, for the first time, the citizens elected their 
aldermen and councilmen. Gabriel Minvielle, a mer- 
chant of French origin, who had emigrated to the pro- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 211 

vince in 1669, was appointed mayor. He held the office 
but one year ; though he afterwards mingled largely in 
politics, and took an active part with the aristocratic 
faction in the affair of Leisler. He died in 1702, leaving 
no children. 

In 1685, the Duke of York succeeded to the throne 
under the title of James II., and New York became a 
royal province. His accession was marked b}' renewed 
oppressions. In his new instructions to Dongan, he au- 
thorized him, with his council, to resume the power of 
enacting laws and imposing taxes ; and also directed him 
on no account to suffer printing-presses to be established 
in the colony. He also urged Dongan to favor the intro- 
duction of the Roman Catholic religion into the pro- 
vince ; a course of policy which the governor, himself a 
Catholic, was reluctant to adopt. The French in the 
Canadas were using every effort to gain over the Iro- 
quois through the influence of Jesuitical missionaries, 
and the clear-sighted Dongan saw that it was necessary 
to counteract this influence to preserve the province to 
the English government. This conduct displeased James, 
who was more of a churchman than a statesman, and 
paved the way for Dongan's speedy recall. 

On the 6th of August, 1685, the Assembly was dis- 
solved by proclamation of the governor, and no other 
was summoned during the reign of James. Nicholas 
Bayard was chosen mayor for this year. Bayard was of 
Holland origin, and was cousin of Judith Bayard, the 
wife of Petrus Stuyvesant. Few men in the province 
led a more eventful life. Entering early into politics as 
well as into mercantile life, he amassed a fortune, and, at 



212 HISTORY OF THE 

the same time, became one of the promment men of the 
city. In the stirring times of the Leisler Rebellion, he 
took sides with the aristocratic faction, was imprisoned, 
tried, convicted of treason and sentenced to death by 
the Leislerians ; then released and promoted to high 
honors on the elevation of his own party to power. He 
owned large tracts of land in various parts of the city, 
among which was the well known " Bayard Farm," 
l3-ing on the west side of the Bowery above Canal street. 
He died in 1711, leaving an only son who inherited his 
large estates. 

A disposition was manifested during this year towards 
the persecution of the Jews, which was subsequently 
carried much further. The clause in the charter, grant- 
ing tolerance to all who worshipped God through Jesus 
Christ, was construed to exclude the Hebrew race, and 
the Jews were forbidden to exercise their religion. They 
were also prohibited from selling goods at retail, but were 
permitted to continue the wholesale trade. 

A public chimney-sweeper was appointed for the city, 
who was to cry his approach through the public streets, 
and who probably originated the whoop peculiar to his 
vocation. His rates were fixed by law at a shilling and 
eighteen pence per chimney, according to the height of 
the house. A part of the slaughter-house over the 
Smits's Vly was converted into a powder-magazine, its 
distance from the city rendering it a safe place of 
deposit for the explosive material, and Garret Johnson, 
the proprietor of the establishment, was constituted the 
keeper. Markets were ordered to be held three times a 
week, though fish, poultry, butter, fruits and vegetables 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



213 



were permitted to be sold daily. A haven master was 
appointed to look after the shipping and collect the bills. 
and surveyors were named to regulate the buildings and 
preserve the uniformitij of the streets. 

In 1686, the Dongan Charter was granted to the city. 
This instrument, which still forms the basis of the muni- 
cipal rights and privileges of New York, confirmed the 
franchises before enjoyed hy the corporation, and placed 
the city government on a delinite footing. The governor 
retained the appointment of the mayor, recorder, sheriff, 
coroner, high constable, town clerk, and clerk of tlie 
market in his own hands ; leaving the aldermen, assist- 
ants, and petty constables to be chosen by the people at 
the annual election on St. Michael's Day. This charter 
declared that New York City should thenceforth com- 
prise the entire island of Manhattan, extending to the 
low-water mark of the bays and rivers surrounding it.* 

In the same year, the city received a new seal from 




City Seai of lt;s6. 
• Dated April 22, WSS. 



21 4: UISTORYOFTHE 

the home goverument. This still jDreserved the beaver 
of the Dutch, with tiie addition of a flour-barrel and the 
arms of a windmill in token of the prevailing commerce 
of the city. The whole was supported by two Indian 
chiefs, and encircled with a wreath of laurel, with the 

motto, SiGILLUM CiVITATIS NoVI EbORACI. 

In 1G87, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was again appointed 
mayor. During his mayoralty, it was determined to 
enlarge tlie city by building a new street in the river 
along the line of Water street, between Whitehall and 
Old Slip, and water lots were sold by the corporation on 
condition that the purchasers should make the street 
towards the water, and protect it by a substantial wharf 
from the washing of the tide, in imitation of the Waal or 
sheet pile street, extending along the line of Pearl 
street, from Broad to William streets in front of the 
City Hall. It was not, however, until some years after, 
that this scheme was canned into effect, and the projected 
street rescued from the waters. 

Measures were also taken to enlarge the city still fur- 
ther by placing the fortifications further out, and laying 
out Wall street thirty-six feet wide. The fortifications, 
indeed, were now worse than useless. The palisades 
which had been erected in 1653 along the line of Wall 
street had fallen down, the works were in ruins, the 
guns had disappeared from the artillery-mounts, and the 
ditches and stockades were in a ruinous condition. Their 
immediate removal was determined on and ordered, but 
was delayed by the revolution which followed soon after. 
When war bi'oke out between France and England in 
1093, they were again repaired to be in readiness for the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 215 

expected French invasion, and it was not until 1G99 that 
their demohtion was finally accomplished. Wall street, 
however, was laid out immediately, and it was not long 
before it became one of the most important thorough- 
fares in the city. During the same year, a valuation 
was made of the city property, which was estimated on 
the assessor's books at £78,231. 

In the meantime, Indian aifairs had claimed the atten- 
tion of the governor. The treaty of peace, long since 
concluded at Tawasentha between the Dutch and the Iro- 
quois, had never been openly broken, and the Indian 
war during Kieft's administration had been definitively 
ended by the interposition of these powerful tribes. Yet 
the Five Nations had fancied themselves slighted by the 
late governors, and their warriors had resented the sup- 
posed insults by occasional aggressions upon the English 
settlements. Just at this juncture, the French in Canada, 
who had long been endeavoring to j^ersuade the Iroquois 
to acknowledge their sway, resolved to force them to 
submission ; and organized a large army, designed for 
their extermination. On hearing of this project, James II., 
regarding it as a good opportunity to rid the prov- 
uice of a dangerous enemy, ordered Dongan not to 
interfere in the matter. Dongan, however, was far too 
honorable to see his allies murdered in cold blood, in 
obedience to the wiU of his superiors. He warned the 
Iroquois at once of their danger, and, promising them 
assistance, invited them to meet him at Albany, to renew 
the treaty of peace which had well-nigh been forgotten. 
They were punctual at the rendezvous, and concluded a 
new treaty, which was long respected by both parties. The 



216 HISTORY OF THE 

French made two invasions on the territory of the Iro- 
quois, but, Aveakened by sickness and unacquainted with 
Indian warfare, the}^ soon returned with scattered ranks, 
having effected nothing, except to arouse the wrath of a 
powerful enemy. They had opened the door to a terrible 
retribution. The Indians fell with fury upon the Cana- 
dian settlements, burning, ravaging, and slaying without 
mercy, until they had nearly exterminated the French 
from the territory. The war continued until of all the 
French colonies, Quebec, Montreal, and Trois Rivieres 
alone remained, and the French dominion in America 
was almost annihilated. Governor Dongan remainied 
a firm friend of the Indians during his administration, 
aiding them by his counsel, and doing them every good 
ofl&ce in his power. By this policy, he gained the fullest 
confidence of the grateful savages, and the name of 
"Dongan, the white father" was remembered in the 
Indian lodges long after it had grown indifierent to his 
coimtrymen of Manhattan. 

While Dongan was thus winning popularity abroad 
among his savage allies, a growing feeling of discontent 
was springing, up among his subjects at home. The 
citizens were mostly Protestants, and bitterly opposed to 
the Catholic religion.; many of them Waldenses and 
Huo-uenots, who had fled from the religious persecutions 
in Europe, and crossed the ocean to seek protection 
under the tolerant Dutch government. On the cession 
of the province to the English, they fell under the direct 
rule of the Duke of York, a zealous Catholic, and an 
avowed opponent to the Protestant religion. On his 
accession to the throne, he awakened their distrust still 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 217 

more by surrounding himself with those of his creed, 
and elevating them to most of the posts of honor and 
profit in the kingdom. It was evidently and naturally 
his settled purpose to encourage the growth of Catholic- 
ism in his dominions, and though his plans for the con- 
version of the Indians were thwarted by the policy of 
Dongan, the Protestants saw his designs maturing in the 
city. Roman Catholics began to emigrate rapidly ; the 
collector of customs with several other prominent officials 
were avowed Papists, and the minister of the church of 
England, with many others, was suspected of seci'etly 
favoring the same religion. The people grew jealous of 
the Catholic influence, and murmured loudly at the 
spread of the obnoxious faith. Governor Dongan, who 
was still popular, despite his creed, used every effort to 
soothe their discontent by choosing the majority of his 
council from among the stanchest Protestants, and 
showing the greater possible religious toleration. But 
his judicious policy displeased his royal master, and, in 
the midst of his politic measures, he was suddenly recalled 
from the government. Resigning his command to Francis 
Nicholson, the deputy of Sir Edmund Andros, who had 
been appointed royal governor both of New England 
and New York, he set sail for Europe. He afterwards 
returned, and took up his residence on an estate on 
Staten Island, for which he had previously procured a 
patent, and which continued for many years in the pos- 
session of his family. 

Nicholson took possession of the government during 
the month of August, 1688. On the 24th of the same 
month, Andros issued a proclamation for a general 



218 CITYOFNEWYORK, 

thanksgiving for the birth of a prince, the heir to the 
English crown. The next Enghsh mail brought start- 
ling intelligence. The Prince of Orange had invaded 
England, the people had everywhere flocked to his 
standard, James had abdicated the throne and fled to the 
continent in despair, and William and Mary, Prince and 
Princess of Orange, had been proclaimed King and 
Queen of England 



CHAPTER VIL. 



Revolution of 1689— Affair of Leisler. 



The news produced an instant revolution in the colo- 
nies. The Prince and Princess of Orange were known 
as stanch Protestants, and their accession to the throne 
was hailed with delight. But a knotty point arose in 
the administration of affairs. The commissions that had 
been granted by James II. became null and void on the 
receipt of this intelligence. The new sovereigns, involved 
in the perplexities of home affairs, and hardly, as yet, 
seated firmly on the throne, had found no time to for- 
ward instructions to their distant colonies, who were 
thus left without legal authority. Uncertain how to act, 
they determined to act for themselves. The Bostonians 
rose in arms, seized Sir Edmund Andros and his officers, 
sent them to England, and resumed their former popular 
government. The New Yorkers were not thus united. 
While they recognized the supremacy of William and 
Mary, a small party insisted that the colonial govern- 
ment had not been overthrown by the late revolution, 
but remained vested in the lieutenant-governor and his 



220 HISTORY OF THE 

council until further advices should arrive from England 
This party consisted chiefly of the wealthiest and most 
aristocratic portion of the citizens, and was headed by 
Stephanus Van Cortlandt, mayor of the city, Nicholas 
Bayard, colonel of the city militia, Frederick Philipse,* a 
wealthy citizen, and Joseph Dudley ; all of whom were 
members of the council, holding their commissions from 
Dongan, the royal governor. 

The mass of the people, on the other hand, maintained 
that the whole government had been overthrown by the 
deposal of James II., and that, as no one could longer 
legally hold power from the late authorities, the people 
themselves must rule until the arrival of the newly com- 
missioned governor. The greatest excitement prevailed 
throughout the city. Nicholson and his party, though 
openly acknowledging the supremacy of the new gov- 
ernment, were suspected of being still in the interests of 
the late king. Rumors of every sort were abroad. 
Nicholson himself was known to be an adherent to the 
Catholic faith, as well as many of his party ; and this 
fact increased the distrust of the people. A rumor was 
spread that the Papists had plotted to attack the 
Protestants while at church in the fort, massacre them 
all, take possession of the government, and erect the 
standard of the Pope and King James. 

These extravagant rumors seem to have been ground- 
less, but they, nevertheless, excited general consterna- 
tion. The people of Long Island deposed their 
magistrates and chose others in their stead ; and also 

* Or Fljpseu, originally from Bohemia 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 221 

dispatched a large body of militia to New York, "to 
"seize the fort, and to keep oft' popery, French invasion 
" and slavery." 

The militia force of New York at this time consisted 
of five train-bands, of which Nicholas Bayard was 
colonel, and Jacob Leisler, senior captain. Of Bayard, 
we have already spoken. Jacob Leisler, who became in 
this struggle the hero of one of the most eventful epochs 
in the history of New York, was one of the oldest 
and wealthiest of the ancient Dutch burghers. He emi- 
grated from Frankfort to New Amsterdam in the ship 
Otter, in the year 1660, as a soldier in the service of the 
West India Company. Soon after his arrival, he married 
Elsje Loockermans, widow of Cornelius Vanderveer, and 
thus became uncle of Stephanus Van Cortlandt and 
Nicholas Bayard, the foes who afterwards brought bin. 
to the scaftbld. He engaged at once in commerce, and 
soon became one of the leading shipping merchants of 
the city. On the cession of the city to the English, he 
took oaths of allegiance to the new government, and was 
among those who contributed, in 1672, towards the 
repairs of Fort James. Two years after, he was 
appointed one of the commissioners for the forced loan 
levied by Colve, at which time his property was valued 
at fifteen thousand guilders. In 1678, on a voyage to 
Europe, he was taken prisoner by the Turks, and forced 
to pay a heavy ransom for his liberty. On his return, in 
1683, he received the appointment of Commissioner of 
the Admiralty from Governor Dongan. He had two chil- 
dren, Jacob and Mary, the latter of whom married Jacob 
Milborue, the companion of her father's prosperity and 



222 HISTORY OF THE 

misfortunes, and, after his death, Abraham Gouverneur 
his son grew up to vindicate his father's memory, and 
to wring a tardy justice from the hands of his judges. 
He was well known as a zealous opponent of the Catholic 
faith. In Albany, in 1675, he had been imprisoned by 
Andros for his opposition to Rensselaer, an Episcopal 
clergyman and suspected Papist, who had been sent to 
the province by the Duke of York, and had thus won 
the confidence of the Protestant party, who in this emer- 
gency, naturally chose him as their leader. 

The public money, amounting to £773 12s., had been 
deposited for safe keeping in the fort, which was gar- 
risoned by a few soldiers, under the command of a 
Catholic ensign. Anxious to secure the control of this 
treasure, the citizens assembled on the 2d of June, 1689, 
and marching in a body to the house of Leisler, requested 
him to lead them to the seizure of the fort ; then, upon 
his refusal, proceeded thither, headed by Ensign Stoll, 
and entered the fortress without resistance. On learn- 
ing of this capture, Leisler repaired to the fort with 
forty-seven men, where he was welcomed by the citizens 
and acknowledged their leader. 

The people were now openly divided into two parties 
— the democratic and aristocratic, — the Leislerian and 
auti-Leislerian. The former met together, and chose a 
Committee of Safety, consisting of Richard Denton, 
Samuel Edsall, Theunis Roelofse, Pieter Delanoy, Jean 
Marest, Mathias Harvey, Daniel Le Klercke, Johannes 
Yermilye, Thomas WiUiams and William Lawrence, for 
the immediate government of the province. This com- 
mittee appointed Jacob Leisler captain of the fort, with 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 223 

full power to preserve the peace and to suppress any 
rebellion until the arrival of instructions from England. 

In the meantime, the city militia had joined the popu- 
lar party, and it was agreed that the fort should be held 
by each of the five train-bands in turn. On the evening 
of the capture, it was resigned by Leisler to Captain 
Lodowick and his company. The next morning, a rumor 
was circulated that three ships were coming up the bay, 
upon which the train-bands hastily assembled in the fort, 
where the five captains and four hundred men, together 
with seventy volunteers from Westchester, signed an 
agreement to hold the fort for Wilham and Mary. 

Nicholson and his party, meanwhile, had not been 
idle. No sooner had Leisler entered the fort than, hastily 
calling together the city officials, they resolved them- 
selves into a convention in opposition to the Committee 
of Safety, and resolved to take measures to counteract 
the revolutionists. Thinking the public money unsafe in 
the fort, they determined to remove it to the house of 
Frederick Phihpse ; but Leisler refused to deliver it to 
their order. They next made an effort to secure the 
custom-house revenues. The people had already refused 
payment of duties to the collector, Matthias Plowman, 
under the pretext that he was a Catholic. Nicholson 
now dispatched Nicholas Bayard and three others to take 
his place. On arriving at the custom-house, they found 
it guarded by militia. The Committee of Safety had 
already appointed their own collector, and armed men 
were sent on board all vessels arriving in port. 

Foiled in this quarter. Colonel Bayard repaired to the 
fort to look after his refractory train-bands. He found 



224 HISTORY OF THE 

them assembled on the BowUng Green, and ordered 
them to disperse. They refused to obey. Unable to 
enforce his commands, he returned to the City Hall at 
Coenties Slip, where Nicholson had assembled the rest 
of the council. It was not long before Captain Lodo- 
wick, the captain of the day, came to demand the sur- 
render of the kej-s of the fort. Nicholson, finding 
that the militia had declared against him, and that 
resistance would be in vain, reluctantly resigned them ; 
and hastily breaking up his council, fled to a ship in the 
harbor, and set sail for England, leaving the government 
in the hands of Leisler and his party. Bayard took 
refuge at Albany with Colonel Peter Schuyler,* the 
mayor of that city, who also refused to acknowledge 
the supremacy of Leisler. Van Cortlandt, who still 
claimed to act as mayor, remained in New York. 

On the 16th of August, the Committee of Safety 
authorized Leisler to act as commander-in-chief of the 
province until further instructions should arrive from 
England. The neighboring colonies did not delay to 
recognize his authority. Massachusetts approved his 
conduct, and the General Court of Connecticut dis- 
patched two deputies to congratulate him upon his suc- 
cess, and to promise him assistance if necessarj\ These 
deputies brought news of the proclamation of the new 
sovereigns in England, upon which Leisler immediately 
ordered them to be proclaimed at the sound of the 
trumpet at the fort and the City Hall. He then went 
energetically to work to restore order to public affairs. 

* So well known for his salutary influence over the Indiang. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 225 

Knowing that the French court had espoused the cause 
of the deposed king, and that a war with France must 
ensue, he set about repairing the fortifications and 
providing for the public safety. He stockaded the fort 
and erected a battery of seven guns to the west of it, 
strengthened the fortifications on the hind side, and 
placed a garrison of fifty men in the fort, besides a com- 
pany of militia that mounted guard every night, after 
which he dispatched a private letter to the king, relating 
the particulars of the seizure of the fort, and accounting 
for the expenditure of the public money, the most of 
which had been swallowed up in the repairs. 

On the 29th of September, 1689, by order of the 
Committee of Safety, the people assembled in their 
wards and elected their aldermen and councilmen, and 
for the first time, their mayor also. Pieter Delanoy was 
chosen mayor, Johannes Johnson, sheriff, and Abraham 
Grouverneur, clerk. Mr. Delanoy was a native born Hol- 
lander, who had emigrated to New Amsterdam in the 
days of Stuyvesant, and engaged in trade with signal 
success. He was warmly attached to the popular party, 
and clung faithfully to it through its changing fortunes. 
On the 14th of October, 1089, he was proclaimed mayor 
by Leisler, and on the same day he took the oaths of 
office, together with the Common Council, at the City 
Hall at Coenties Slip, now in the possession of the popu- 
lar party. 

The city was emphatically divided against itself 

Each party had its mayor and common council, who 

claimed to administer the city affairs, and each met 

and transacted the business of the city, wliolly ignoring 

15 



226 HISTORY OF THE 

the existence of the other. Delanoy, on one side, had 
possession of the City Hall ; Van Cortlandt, on the other, 
held the charter, books, seals and papers. The newly- 
elected mayor sent to demand the latter, but without 
avail, and so the matter rested. 

The election increased instead of allaying the popular 
agitation, and Bayard, still at Albany, fomented it by 
every means in his power. On the 20th of October, he 
addressed a letter to the militia, declaring that Jacob 
Leisler and his associates had illegally invaded their 
majesties' fort and subverted all lawful authority, and 
commanding the train-bands as their colonel to refuse 
all aid to these usurpers, and to continue to obey the 
civil government established by Sir Edmund Andros, 
which was still in full force, and was the only legal 
authority. This letter was productive of no effect. The 
soldiers and the majority of the citizens continued faith- 
ful to Leisler. Long Island, Westchester and Orange 
Counties also recognized his authority, but the Albanians 
continued to regard him as a usurper, and to obey the 
authorities established by the late monarchy. 

Li the meantime, war had broken out on the frontier. 
France, espousing the cause of the exiled king, had 
declared war against England, and the French in the Can- 
adas, with their Indian allies, the Hurons, threatened the 
little settlements that had sprung up along the northern 
frontier with speedy destruction. Terrified at the dan- 
ger, the Albanians resolved to seek assistance from New 
York ; and in September, a convention of the civil 
authorities dispatched a messenger to Leisler to entreat 
him to furnish them with men, ammunition and money 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 227 

Leisler made no reply to the convention, who heW their 
commissions from James II. He sent some powder and 
guns to the miUtary officers, l:>ut refused them any sol- 
diers, on account of some alleged slight which his people 
had received in Albany ; and urged the Albanians 
to send deputies to New York to consult with him for 
the public good. This they refused to do, and asked 
assistance from Connecticut, which two months after. 
sent them eighty-seven men. 

About the same time, Leisler dispatched his son-in-law 
and secretary, Milborne, who had arrived from England 
the preceding summer, with a force of fifty men to their 
aid ; but the Albanians, suspecting that this expedition 
was covertly designed to gain possession of the fort and 
overthrow the existing government, determined that they 
should not be permitted to take command in the city. 
The force, indeed, was too small for any such purpose, 
but Milborne doubtless entertained the design, and relied 
on the aid which he might receive from the citizens. 
The latter, however, were averse to a change, and, yield- 
ing to the persuasions of their officers, had already 
pledged themselves at a public meeting to maintain the 
present authorities. The troops, on their arrival, were 
not suffered to land, but Milborne was invited to come 
alone into the city. He repaired to the City Hall, and 
at once commenced to harangue the people, telling them 
that their present charter was null and void, and urging 
them to depose their officers and choose new ones in 
their stead, as they now had a right to govern themselves. 
He also declared that he was authorized by the Commit- 
tee of Safety of the province to administer affairs at 



228 HISTORY OF THE 

Albany ; and, by virtue of this autliority, he demanded 
that an account should be furnished him of the arms and 
stores in the fort, and that an election should be held for 
both civil and military officers. The convention refused 
to acknowledge his commission, and forbade him to come 
within the gates of the city unless he would consent to 
submit to their authority. He next attempted to force 
an entrance, when the guns of the fort were turned upon 
him, and seeing that, with his small force, he could effect 
nothing, he wisely determined to return to New York. 

In the month of December, a packet arrived from Eng- 
land, addressed to Francis Nicholson, or to those who, 
for the time being, administered the government in the 
province of New York. This packet contained a com- 
mission empowering the person who was then at the head 
of the government to appoint a council and to act as lieu- 
tenant-governor until further orders. Hearing of the 
arrival of this precious document, Nicholas Bayard came 
secretly to New York, and seeking out Riggs, the bearer 
of the packet, endeavored to persuade him that Leisler 
■was a usurper, and that it rightfully belonged to himself 
and Philipse as members of the late council. His argu- 
ments failed to satisfy Riggs, who, finding that Leisler 
had been conducting the government for nearly seven 
months with the consent of the people and in behalf of 
William and Mary, deUvered the papers to him as their 
rio-htful possessor. Leisler showed them to the Com- 
mittee of Safety, and, by their advice, assumed the title 
of lieutenant-governor, and appointed a council of eight 
persons to assist him in administering the government. 
This council consisted of Pieter Delanoy, Samuel Staats, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 229 

Hendrick Jansen, Johannes Yermilye, Gerardus Beek- 
man, Samuel Edsall, Thomas WiUiams and WiUiam 
Lawrence. 

Thmking himself now the legal govei'noi' of the pro- 
vince and sure of his position, Leisler resolved to 
restore order by energetic measures. The party of his 
enemies was constantly increasing. His fellow-citizens 
were jealous of his sudden elevation, and the leaders of 
the aristocratic faction used every effort to foment this 
feeling, and to stir them up to open rebellion. They 
even raised a street riot, from which he narrowly escaped 
with his life. The drums were beat and the military 
called out, and for a few minutes the result of the 
struggle seemed doubtful. The riot was finally quelled, 
several of the combatants were thrown into prison, and 
warrants were issued for the arrest of Bayard, Van Cort- 
landt and several others who had been implicated in the 
affair. Van Cortlandt escaped, but Bayard and William 
Nichols were arrested and imprisoned in the cells at the 
City Hall, which then served also as the city prison, and 
a court was summoned to try them for treason. Terrified 
at his danger, Bayard sent a submissive petition to the 
governor, acknowledging his errors, and entreating par- 
don in the humblest terms. His supplication stayed tlie 
proceedings and saved him from death, although it did 
not obtain his release. He remained in jjrison fourteen 
months until the arrival of Governor Sloughter, then 
emerged to wreak a terrible vengeance upon his jailer. 
Meanwhile, his party did not slacken their zeal, but 
stirred up a powerful opposition to Leisler. 

A new event occurred to attract the public notice 



230 HISTORY OF THE 

The frontier warfare still continued, with its scenes of 
savage barbarity. In February, 1690, it reached its 
climax. A party of French and Indians fell at midnight 
upon the little village of Schenectady, and transformed 
the peaceful settlement into a scene of ruin. Men, 
women and children were shot, scalped or carried into 
captivity ; the village was plundered and set on fire, and 
but one house escaped the general conflagration. A few 
escaped half-naked through the snow to carry the news 
to their neighbors at Albany. 

This fearful catastrophe opened the eyes of the Alban- 
ians to their folly in rejecting the aid of New York at a 
time when union was so much needed, and in wasting 
their time in disputing the legality of commissions which 
would so soon be settled by direct instructions from 
England. The most natural conclusion in the existing 
state of affairs was, certainly, that when the authority 
of James II. ceased, the authority of his officers ceased 
also, and the government reverted to the people until 
further instructions should be received from the new 
powers. Such was the interpretation of the mass of the 
people. But the officials who had been commissioned by 
the late government naturally availed themselves of every 
quibble whereby to retain their powers, and being rich 
in means, though poor in numbers, they were, at least, 
partially successful. It was a combat between the aris 
tocrats and the people. In New York, the democracy 
triumphed ; in Albany, the aristocracy. Leisler, who 
now considered himself lieutenant-governor, by virtue of 
the royal commission, again sent Milborne with a strong 
body of troops to force Albany to submit to his authority. 



CITY OF NEW YORK 231 

The citizens, terrified at the massacre of Schenectady, no 
longer attempted resistance, but quietly surrendered the 
fort into his hands. 

Having thus succeeded in gaining control of the pro- 
vince, Leisler summoned a convention of delegates from 
Massachusetts and Connecticut to meet him at New York 
to consult together on the common danger. This con- 
vention assembled on the 1st of May, 1690, and deter- 
mined to fit out an expedition against the Canada?. 
Leisler promised to join with Connecticut in dispatching 
a force of nine hundred men to attack Montreal, while 
Massachusetts pledged herself to send a fleet and an 
army against Quebec. The expeditions were immediately 
fitted out, but both proved signally unsuccessful. 

The enemies of Leisler, in the meantime, had used 
every effort to asperse his motives and actions to the king. 
Though he had always administered the government in 
the name of William and Mary, he was represented as 
in a state of actual rebellion, and denounced to the 
English court as a hypocrite and arch-traitor. Much of 
this calumny was due to Francis Nicholson, who had 
been received with favor on his return, and who had 
avenged himself on Leisler for his forcible expulsion 
from the government by intriguing against him in the 
English court. Immediately upon his accession to the 
government, Leisler had dispatched a memorial and pri- 
vate letter to the king, informing him of the whole affair ; 
but these papers, written in imperfect English — a 
language which Leisler both wrote and spoke badly — 
were wrongly construed. Nicholson did not cease to 
represent Leisler to the king as an ambitious usurper, 



232 HISTORY OF THE 

who had acted from aversion to the Church of England 
and with an eye to his own private interests, rather than 
from any devotion to the Prince of Orange. Misled by 
these reports, the king made no reply to Leisler, although 
he returned thanks to the colonies for their fidelity ; and 
soon after appointed Henry Sloughter governor of New 
York. This was a most injudicious choice. It is true 
that the appointment of a new governor was needed to 
restore harmony among the contending factions, but a 
woi'se one than Sloughter could hardly have been found. 
According to the admission of one of the king's own 
officers, he was "licentious, avaricious and poor," — a 
broken-down adventurer who came to i-epair his wasted 
fortunes from the revenues of the office without thought 
or care for the welfare of his subjects. But the enemies 
of Leisler rejoiced at the appointment. They felt them- 
selves sure of the new governor, whose necessities would 
bhid him to the wealthiest party, and saw that the star 
of their adversary was near its setting. 

In 1690, Governor Sloughter set sail from England 
with several ships and a considerable body of troops. 
By some accident, the vessels parted company, and the 
first ship that arrived was the Beaver, commanded by 
Major Richard Ingoldsby, who had received the appoint- 
ment of lieutenant-governor. The Beaver arrived in 
January, 1691. Ingoldsby at once announced the appoint- 
ment of Sloughter, and in his name demanded that the 
fort should be surrendered to him for the accommodation 
of his soldiers. Leisler, in reply, offered quarters for his 
men, but refused to surrender the fort into his hands until 
he had first produced tlie royal commission. This was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 233 

impossible ; tlie papers were in the hands of Sloughter, 
and Ingoldsby had no credentials whatever in his posses- 
sion. Under these circumstances, it was but natural for 
Leisler to refuse his demands ; but, urged on by the oppo- 
site party, he issued a proclamation, calling on the people 
and magistrates to aid him in enforcing the royal commis- 
sion, and branding all as traitors who refused to obey. 
Leisler, in turn, replied by another proclamation, protest- 
ing against his proceedings, and warning him, at his peril, 
not to attempt any hostility against the fort or city. 

Ingoldsby immediately landed his soldiers, and pro- 
ceeded to blockade the fort by land and sea, while 
Leisler gathered his friends about him, and prepared 
for future action. For seven weeks the city was thus 
blockaded. During this time, the conduct of Leisler 
seems to have been prudent and courteous. A shot was 
fired at Ingoldsby's troops as they were returning one 
night to their ship — he used every effort to detect the 
offender. He ordered the soldiers to be quartered in the 
City Hall and entreated the citizens not to molest them. 
While he steadfastly refused to deliver the fort to 
Ingoldsby until he should produce a royal commission, 
he constantly spoke of him in respectful terms, and 
declared his entire willingness to surrender the fort to 
any one authorized to receive it. Ingoldsby, on his side, 
who was wholly under the empire of the anti-Leislerian 
party, spared no pains to annoy and irritate the gov- 
ernor. He paraded his soldiers about the fort, shut out 
supplies, interrupted the mayor and common council 
while engaged in the discharge of their duties, and 
endeavored by a thousand petty annoyances to provoke 



234 HISTORY OF THE 

Leisler to open combat. His efforts were unavailing ; 
the governor intrenched himself in the fort and patiently 
awaited the coming of Sloughter to free him from all 
perplexities. He little dreamed of the manner in which 
this would be accomplished. 

On the 19th of March, 1691, the vessel of Sloughter 
entered the harbor. Philipse, Yan Cortlandt, and others 
of their part}^ hastened on board, and, greeting him with 
the warmest protestations of fidelity, escorted him to the 
City Hall, where he published his commission and took 
the oaths of ofl&ce at eleven o'clock at night. Without 
heeding the lateness of the hour, he immediately dis- 
patched Ingoldsby with a party of soldiers to take pos- 
session of the fort. Leisler, who did not know Sloughter, 
and who suspected some snare, instead of surrendering 
the fort in obedience to the order, sent a letter, written in 
broken English, by Ensign StoU, to the governor, charg- 
ing StoU, who had seen Sloughter in Europe, to look at 
him well, and be sure that he was no counterfeit, got up 
for the occasion. Sloughter, who suspected something 
of this, informed Stoll that he intended to make himself 
known in Xew York as well as in England, and ordered 
Major Ingoldsby to go a second time to take possession of 
the fort, and at the same time, to release Colonel Bayard 
and Mr. Nichols from their imprisonment to attend his 
majesty's service, they having been appointed members 
of the council. He also ordered Leisler, Milborne, and 
the others " who called themselves the council," to come 
to him at once, without loss of time. Leisler refused 
either to surrender the fort or to release the prisoners, but 
sent Milborne and Delanoy to make terms with the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 235 

governor, and to endeavor to procure some security for 
his own safety, which he felt was in imminent danger. 
Sh>ughter at once imprisoned the envoys, and sent 
Ingoldsby a third time to take possession of the fort, 
which Leisler again refused to him. 

Early the next morning, Leisler sent a letter to the 
governor, surrendering the fort, and apologizing for hold- 
ing it after his arrival. That he had done so, was unwise, 
but certainly not indicative of treasonable designs. He 
had hoped to retain possession of it, that he might in 
some degree counteract the influence of his enemies by 
a personal surrender. lie well knew that to yield it to 
Ingoldsby would be to place his life in the power of the 
opposite faction ; but the delay by which he sought to 
escape w^as made the most efiectual instrument of his 
ruin. , 

No notice whatever was taken of the letter. Sloughter 
and his friends met at the City Hall, where a council was 
sworn in, consisting of Joseph Dudley, Frederick Phil- 
ipse, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Gabriel Minvielle, Chud- 
ley Brooke, Thomas Willett, William Pinhorne and 
William Nichols — all sworn foes of Leisler. This done, 
twenty-nine papers from the English government rela- 
tive to Leisler, which had been first sent to England from 
Albany, were dehvered to the secretary, and Jacob Leis- 
ler was brought in a prisoner. The king's letter, from 
which he claimed to derive his authority, was taken from 
him, and he was committed to the guard-house with 
eleven of his adherents. At the same meeting, the gov- 
ernor appointed John Lawrence mayor of the city. 

Leisler and his companions remained in the guard- 



236 HISTORY OF THE 

house until the 23d of March, when the governor and 
council met at the fort, and appointed a committee to 
examine them with a view to their removal to the city 
prison. The next day the council met again, and organ- 
ized a special court of eight members for the trial of the 
prisoners. Sir Robert Robertson, William Smith, Wil- 
liam Pinhorne, John Lawrence, Jasper Hicks, Richard 
Ingoldsby, Isaac Arnold and John Young were ap- 
pointed judges by the governor, for the trial of the 
prisoners on a charge of murder and rebellion. 

On the 30th of March, the court met for the trial of 
the prisoners. Leisler refused to plead, alleging that the 
court had no jurisdiction in the case, but that it belonged 
to his majesty himself to declare whether he had acted 
under legal authority, and insisting that the letter 
addressed to Nicholson, or, in his absence, to the chiefs 
of the government, had entitled him to act as lieutenant- 
governor. The pliant judges, instead of deciding the 
question, submitted it to the opinion of the governor and 
council. They decided in the negative ; Leisler was pro- 
nounced a usurper, and, on the 13th of April, both he and 
Milborne were condemned to death as rebels and traitors. 

Notwithstanding the prejudices of Sloughter against 
Leisler, he feared to risk the displeasure of the king by 
summarily putting to death the man who had first raised 
his standard in New York, and who had constantly 
professed to act under his authority. He hesitated, 
talked of a reprieve, and flatly refused to sign his death- 
warrant until it had first received the sanction of the king. 
But the enemies of Leisler were thirsting for his blood. 
Bayard, embittered by his long imprisonment, burned for 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 237 

revenge, and Nichols and Van Corthindt were not slow 
to second him. On the 14th of May, the council met 
and urged the governor to carry the sentence into execu- 
tion. The next day, the petition was seconded by the 
new assembly, the speaker of which was a declared 
enemy of Leisler. But Sloughter still hesitated, and the 
council determined to gain by stratagem what they could 
not by entreaty. Knowing the weakness of the governor, 
they invited him to a feast ; then, when he was overcome 
with wine, cajoled him into signing the death-warrant. 

The fatal signature once procured, they dared not 
await the possibility of its revocation. An officer stole 
with it from the scene of festivity to the city prison, and 
ordered the victuns to be led out for immediate execu- 
tion. The council, meanwhile, plied the governor with 
wine, and amused him into forgetfulness of the fate of 
the prisoners. 

In the midst of a cold and drizzling spring rain, Leisler 
and Milborne were led out for execution. The scaffold 
was erected in the square at the lower end of the Park, 
on his own grounds, in full view of his country-seat. 
The weeping people thronged about him, execrating 
those who had deprived them of their leader. A few 
members of the council stole fi'om the scene of revelry, 
and came to witness the consummation of their vengeance. 
Leisler's dying speech was full of humility and forgive- 
ness. " Why must you die ?" said he to Milborne. " You 
"have been but a servant, doing my will. What I have 
" done has been but in the service of my king and queen, 
" for the Protestant cause, and for the good of my coun- 
"try; and for this T must die. Some errors I have 



238 HISTORY OF THE 

" committed ; for these I ask pardon. I forgive my 
*' enemies as I hope to be forgiven, and I entreat my 
" children to do the same." Not so humble was the 
youthful Milborne. Turning to Robert Livingston,* 
who had stationed himself near the scaflbld, he said 
to him fiercely: "You have caused my death, but for 
" this will I implead you before the bar of God." — The 
drop fell ; the populace rushed forth with shrieks and 
groans to snatch some i-elic of their martyred leader, and 
the last act was ended of one of the most eventful 
dramas ever enacted within the city of New York. The 
bodies were taken down, and interred, by Leisler's own 
request, in his garden near the site of Tammany Hall. 
Thus perished the last Dutch governor of New York. 

Leisler was truly a martyr of the peo^^le. They had 
chosen him to stand at their head and to aid them in 
preserving their civil and religious liberty when left with- 
out a ruler and in danger of falling a prey to a clique of 
ambitious men. Under their authority he acted until 
it was, as he thought, confirmed by the king. On the 
ari'ival of the new governor, he surrendered the fort on 
the day that the council was sworn in ; and they had no 
right to demand it before. Yet he was immediately 
arrested without a hearing, thrown into prison like a 
common malefactor, and sentenced to death, not by the 
judgment of the court that had been apijointed for his 
trial, but by the decision of a council composed of his 
bitterest enemies. But it was the people instead of 
Leisler who were struck at, in truth. It was then, as 

* Emigrated iibont 1672, originally from Scotland. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 239 

later, the policy of the English government to crush 
every symptom of popular liberty in her colonies, and 
to rule them with a rod of iron. Jacob Leisler and 
Jacob Milborne were the first victims in the cause of 
freedom, and the pioneers of the long train that fol- 
lowed on the fields of the Revolution more than a 
century after. 

Four years afterwards, the son of Jacob Leisler did 
justice to the memory of his father by prosecuting the 
appeal which had been denied him. On the 11th of 
March, 1G95, the Lords Commissioners of Trade, to 
whom it had been referred, decided that the deceased 
had been condemned and executed according to law, but 
that their families were fit objects of royal compassion, 
and ordered the confiscated estates to be restored. But 
tills did not satisfy the friends of the victims, who 
appealed from this decision to Parliament, and by 
the aid of powerful influence, obtained the same year 
a reversal of the attainder. This act stated explicitly 
that Leisler had been appointed commander-in-chief 
until their majesties' pleasure should be further known ; 
that he was afterwards confirmed in his authority by 
their majesties' letter, dated July 30, 1689 ; that, while 
he held this power, by virtue of said authority, Major 
lugoldsby had arrived in January and demanded the 
surrender of the fort without producing any legal 
authority ; that Leisler, pursuant to the trust reposed 
in him, kept possession of the fort until the following 
March, when Henry Sloughter arrived late in the even- 
ing ; that Leisler, having received notice of his com- 
ing, delivered the fort to him early the next morning ; 



240 HISTORY OF THE 

and coiiscqueutly, that all acts, judgments and attainders 
were declared reversed by the decision of parliament. 
Three years after, the bodies of Leisler and Milborne 
were disinterred and reburied with great ceremony in the 
old Dutch church in Garden street. 

Sloughter was now firmly established as governor, and 
affairs began to assume a settled aspect. But the rancor 
of the late struggle did not soon die out, and for the 
next quarter of a century, the supremacy of the city 
was warmly contested by the Leislerians and anti-Leis- 
lerians. The j^arties transmitted the feud to their children, 
and the vestiges of it are even now to be found among the 
descendants of these early colonists. 

As may readily be inferred from preceding events, the 
first Assembly that met under the new administration 
was wholl}- devoted to the interests of the governor. 
The laws which they framed, and Avhich came to be 
recognized as the first acknowledged code in the province, 
were molded to suit his interests, and to make him 
wholly independent of the people, by granting him a 
permanent revenue, together with the sole right of issu- 
ing warrants for moneys fi'om the public treasury. The 
Charter of Liberties, which had been granted by the 
Duke of York in Dongan's administration, was declared 
null and void. The single popular law passed by them, 
declaring that it was the people's right instead o^ privilege 
to be represented in general assembly was vetoed by the 
king. The old Court of Assizes was abolished, and a 
Supreme Court, consisting of five judges, instituted in its 
stead. Of this, Dudley was made chief-justice with a 
salary of a hundred and thirty pounds, and Johnson, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 241 

Smith, Yan Cortlandt, and Pinhorne were appointed his 
associates. 

In 1691, Abraham De Peyster, captain of one of the 
train-bands, and a friend of Leisler, was appointed to the 
mayoralty. Mr. De Peyster had taken an active part on 
the side of the people in the late agitation, and his ap- 
pointment was well calculated to meet their favor. He 
held the office for three years, after which he received 
the appointment of treasurer which he held until his 
death in 1721. 

Comparative tranquillity being now restored the citi- 
zens began to turn their attention to public improvements. 
Water street was extended from Old Slip to Fulton street, 
and Pine, Cedar, and the neighboring streets were laid 
out through the old Damen farm. Two markets for meat 
were established, the one in Broadway, opposite the fort, 
and the other at Coenties Slip ; and no cattle were per- 
mitted to be slaughtered within the city gates. 

The city determined to assume the support of the 
public paupei's, and each alderman was ordered to make 
a return of the poor in his ward. Several were soon 
recommended as objects of charity, to whom a pittance 
was granted from the public treasury, no house being as 
yet provided for their reception. The poisonous weeds, 
stramonium and others, that grew in such abundance on 
the island, were ordered to be rooted up from the high- 
ways, and every citizen was directed to keej) the street 
clean before his door. 

In the same year, it was decided to build another 
church up-town, and the officers of the church of St. 
Nicholas purchased a building-lot in Garden street, now 
16 



242 



HISTORY OF 



Exchange place, 125 feet front by 180 feet rear, for 
which they paid a hundred and eighty pieces of eight, 
on which a church was soon after erected. 

Many other municipal regulations, concerning huck- 
sters, bakers, butchers and others were estabhshed, which 
were then esteemed of vital importance, hut the minutice 
of which would now be wearisome to the general reader. 
A single item we must notice as convej'ing an idea of 
the punishments practised in olden times. A pillory, 
cage, wliipping-post, and ducking-stool were set up in 
the vicinit\' of the City Hall, and hither were brought 
all vagrants, slanderers, pilferei's, and truant children to 
be exposed for public show, or to receive such severer 
chastisement as their offences might warrant. 




f^^ ■ — .fit' «' ^j.. i/% 




^•4 r 




Tlie Bowery House. 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



243 




Old Dutch Cliurch in Garden Street, erected :n 1696. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 245 

On the 23d of July, 1691, Sloughter died suddenly. 
So hostile was the spirit of the times and so bitter 
the animosities that existed against him, that it was at 
first asserted that he had been poisoned by the Leisle- 
rians, but this charge was disproved by a post mortem 
examination. His remains were deposited in the Stuy- 
vesant vault, next to those of the old Dutch governor, 
The charge of affairs devolved upon Dudley, Major In- 
goldsby, to whom it belonged of right, being absent in 
CuraQoa. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



Idmiuistration of Fletcher— Progress of the City — Piratical Depredations — Lord 
Bellamont Governor. 

On the 29th of August, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher, the 
newly-appointed governor, arrived at New York. He 
was also invested with the government of Pennsylvania 
and Delaware, of which Penn had recently been deprived 
by reason of suspicions of his loyalty, and was commis- 
sioned to command the militia of Connecticut and New 
Jersey — a duty which he found it somewhat difficult to 
perform. The frontier warfare still continued, and New 
York, who, from her geographical position, became the 
English bulwark against the French in the Canadas, had 
petitioned that the other colonies should contribute to 
her defence. The request was granted, and Fletcher 
came instructed to require the southern and eastern pro- 
vinces to furnish their quota of men and money towards 
carrying on the war. The order was grumblingly 
received ; the Quakers excused themselves under pretext 
of conscientious scruples, but finally voted a small sura 
on condition that it should not be used for the war ; Vir- 
ginia raised five hundred pounds as the extent of her 



CITY OF NEW YORK. "247 

resources ; Maryland furnished a small sum un(l(?r in-o- 
test, Connecticut sent no money under plea of an empty 
treasury, but promised to supply volunteers when 
needed, and Massachusetts flatly refused to furnish either, 
alleging that she had her own frontier to defend. The 
whole burden of the war w^as thus thrown upon New 
York, despite her exhausted treasury, and her population, 
decimated by the tragedies lately enacted on the frontier. 

The new governor was despotic, passionate, avaricious 
and fanatical withal, it being his darling project to make 
the Church of England the established church of the land. 
He at once attached himself to the anti-Leislerians, 
and continued a sworn friend to them during his admin- 
istration. He retained the council of his predecessor 
with the exception of Joseph Dudley and William Pin- 
horne, who were replaced by Caleb Heathcote and John 
Young. Dudley was also superseded in the chief-justice- 
ship by William Smith. He returned at once to England, 
when he obtained the governorship of the Isle of Wight. 

On the arrival of the new governor, the mayor and 
corporation of the city met and appropriated twenty 
pounds from the public treasury towards a public dinner 
in his honor. This was a politic movement on their part ; 
they were anxious to dispose him favorably towards a 
petition which they had to offer. Vigorous efforts were 
being made by the towns outside to break up the mono- 
poly of bolting flour and making bread for exportation, 
which had been granted to the city several years before, 
and which had grown to be so valuable a privilege. The 
numerous laws that had been passed to prevent its 
infringement had proved unavailing, and the citizens 



248 HISTORY OF THE 

hoped to obtain the concurrence of the governor in 
securing this right exclusively to the city. The dinner 
was followed by an address entreating the governor to 
petition to their majesties for a confirmation of the 
city charter, and for the continuation of the bolt- 
ing and baking monopoly ; and also entreating that 
the duties of clerk of the market, water-bailiff and 
coroner might be included in the functions of the 
mayoralty. 

That nothing might be spared to secure the governor's 
assistance in the matter, the city authorities presented 
another address to him a few days after, couched in the 
most flattering terms, in which they expressed their joy 
that so wise and pious a governor should have been set 
to rule over them, and entreated him to take the decay- 
ing state of their afflicted city into favorable considera- 
tion, and become its benefactor by securing to it that 
monopoly without which it must perish. The recorder 
was also directed to prepare an address to William and 
Mary, thanking them for the blessing which they had con- 
ferred on the province by appointing Fletcher the gov- 
ernor thereof. Nor did their efforts stop here. On his 
return from a subsequent voyage to Albany whither he 
had gone to direct matters in respect to the frontier war- 
fare, the mayor and corporation appropriated one hun- 
dred pounds for the purchase of a gold cup, to be presented 
to him in testimony of their joy at his safe arrival. They 
let slip no opportunity to load him with fulsome compli- 
ments, and to testify to their approbation of all his 
acts. But this servility availed them nothmg ; in the 
autumn of 1G06, the bolting-act was repealed hy the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 249 

Assembly, and the commerce in bread and flour thrown 
open to all competitors. 

News having been received of a projected French 
invasion, it was determined, soon after Fletcher's arrival, 
to erect a new line of fortifications across the island in 
the place of those now in ruins, and a hundred pounds 
were appropriated for the purpose by the corporation. 
All Indians and negroes who were not already engaged 
in military service were ordered to assist in the work, 
and the citizens generally were directed to give it all the 
assistance in their power. It was also detei-mined to 
erect a battery upon a platform laid upon the point of 
rocks under the fort, so as to command both rivers ; 
and the filling in of the present Batteiy was also com- 
menced. Orders were given to see that the guns of 
the fort were mounted and fit for use, and that there was 
a sufficiency of ammunition. 

In 1693, William Bradford, the Philadelphia printer, 
having become involved in difficulties in consequence of 
his connection with George Keith? who had attempted to 
produce a revolution in Quakerism, removed to New 
York, and established the first printing press in the city. 
lie was at first employed by the city authorities to print 
the corporation laws, and a few years after estab- 
lished a newspaper, which proved a successful specu- 
lation.* 

" New York was the third of the Anglo-American colonies in which printing was 
introduced-ilassachusetts and Pennsylvania preceding it. The first thing printed 
in this city was a small folio volume of the laws of the colony, executed by Brad- 
ford in the first year of his arrival. The next of which we have any account was n 
small 24mo. volume of 61 pages, entitled, "A Letter of Advice to a Yonng Gentle- 
man leaving the University, concerning his Behavior and Conversation in the World, 



I 



250 HISTORY OF THE 

In 1C94, Charles Lodowick, whom we have ah-eady 
seen as captain of the train-bands in the affair of Leisler, 
was appointed mayor. Mr. Lodowick was a prominent 
merchant, the son of one of the early traders in the city 
He retained the office for but one year, after which he 
received the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of the 
province. He subsequently removed to England, where 
he died. 

The chief aim of Fletcher, next to his personal aggran- 
dizement, was the introduction into the province of the 
English church and the English language. This was 
contrary to the wislies of the majority of the inhabitants, 
who still spoke the Dutch language and adhered to the 
Dutch church, which they regarded as the established 
church of the province. This church was attached to 
the Classis of Amsterdam, which was made a pretext by 
Fletcher for substituting the Church of England in its 
stead. The first Assembly that convened after his arri- 
val, though they approved his conduct, and supplied him 
liberally with money .for the defence of the frontiers, 
refused to listen to his intimations on this head. The 
next Assembly, which convened in the September of 
1693, proved more compliant. Besides granting him a 
permanent revenue for five years and giving him control 
of the treasury, they passed an act providing for the 

by R. L. Printed and sold hy W. Bradford, Printer to Hia Majesty, King William, 
at the Bible in New York, 16i)(!." A copy of this rare work was quite recently sold 
at the auction sale of the library of the late E. B. Corwin, for the low sum of 
|!12 00. On the 16th of October, 1725, the first newspaper in the city of New 
York was issued by Bradford, with the following heading : " New York Gazette. 
From Monday, Oct. 16th, to Oct. 23d, 1725." The paper was issued weekly, and 
««s printed on a small foolscap sheet. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 251 

building of a church in the city of New York, another in 
Richmond, two in Westchester, and two in Suffolk, in 
each of which was to be settled a Protestant minister on 
a salary of from forty to a hundred pounds, to be paid 
by a tax levied on the inhabitants. This was less than 
the governor desired — he returned the act, which had 
been sent to him for approval, with an amendment 
granting him the power of inducting every incumbent, 
which the Assembly refused to pass. Upon this he 
called them before him, and angrily broke up the session, 
telling them that he would let them know that he would 
collate or suspend any minister that he chose, and that, 
while he stayed in the government, he should take care 
that neither heresy, schism, nor rebellion should be 
preached among them. The bill subsequently passed 
withoitt the amendment, and the word Protestant being 
construed to mean Episcopal, all the inhabitants were 
compelled to support the Church of England, whatever 
mi"-ht be their religious opinion. In 1696, Trinit}' 
church was begun under the provisions of this act, and 
was completed and opened for worship on the 6th of 
February of the following year by the Rev. William 
Vesey. The church was a small square edifice, with a 
very tall spire. A pew in it was appropriated to the 
mayor and common council, and a sermon was annually 
preached to them on the day of the city election. In 
1703, a cemetery was donated it by the corporation, on 
condition that it should ever after be kept neatly fenced, 
and that the burial fees should not exceed eighteenpence 
for children and three shillings for adults ; and so great 
was the immigration into this city of the dead, that, at 



252 HISTORY OF THE 

the period of the Revolution, its inmates numbered 
more than a hundred and sixty thousand. The old 
graveyard of the Dutch burghers in Broadway above 
Morris street, had, in 1677, been cut up into four build- 
ing lots and sold at auction to the highest bidder. In 
1703, the King's Farm was granted to the church by 
Queen Anne, thus becoming the celebrated Trinity 
church property. The church was enlarged in 1735, and 
again in 1787, to meet the increasing wants of the con- 
gregation, and thus remained until it fell a victim to the 
conflagration of 1776, which laid waste the greater por- 
tion of the city. It lay in ruins until 1788, when it was 
again rebuilt, and consecrated by Bishop Provost in 
1791. In 1839, it was again demolished to make room 
for the present edifice, which was opened in 1846. 

The parish was afterwards made to include St. 
George's in Beekman street, erected in 1752 ; St. Paul's 
in Broadway, erected in 1766; St. John's in Varick 
street, erected in 1807, and Trinity Chapel in Twenty- 
fifth street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, 
erected in 1854, all chapels, dependent upon Trinity as 
the parish church. 

The frontier warfare had continued meanwhile, and 
Fletcher's conduct in this had been characterized with 
decision and promptness, thanks, in part, to the advice 
of Peter Schuyler, who knew the Indians intimately, 
and who had advised Fletcher on his arrival to form a 
firm league with the Iroquois, who formed a powerful 
barrier between the English settlements and the Canadas. 
It was the policy of the French government to extermi- 
nate these tribes as the greatest obstacle in the way of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 253 

their designs, then to seize Albany, and, proceeding 
down the river, take possession of New York, and thus 
make themselves masters of the province. For this pur- 
pose, they dispatched Frontenac with a large army in 
1696 to invade the territory of the Iroquois. The expe- 
dition proved unsuccessful, and before it could be 
renewed, a treaty of peace was concluded at Ryswick 
between France and England which definitively put an 
end to the war. 

The city had long suffered from the rapacity of govern- 
ment officials and the reflected horrors of a distant war- 
fare ; it had now another scourge to encounter. The 
system of privateering had long been in existence, and 
had not only been connived at but openly encouraged by 
the European governments, who deemed it an excellent 
means of annoying their enemies' commerce without 
trouble or expense to themselves. The adventurous 
privateers, emboldened by their successes, soon ripened 
into buccaneers, and, bearing down upon ships of all 
nations, plundered them of their cargoes, then scuttled 
and sunk them, that none might escape to tell the tale. 
The American coasts were infested by pirates, no vessel 
was safe upon the waters, and the ocean commerce was 
almost destroyed. New York suffered especially from 
these depredations. Her merchant vessels w^ere rifled 
and burnt within sight of her shores, and the pirates 
even entered her harbors and seized her ships as they 
lay at anchor. Complaint to the authorities availed 
nothing ; nearly every government official was impli- 
cated in the nefarious trade, and it was suspected, almost 
with certainty, that Fletcher himself was confederated 



254 HISTORY OF THE 

with the pirates and a sharer in their booty. The 
corsairs boldly entered the ports, sure that their mone} 
would purchase protection, and many of the merchants, 
finding legal trade suspended, were tempted to embark in 
the traffic and to lend assistance to the -successful buc- 
caneers. 

The interruption to commerce at length grew so alarm- 
ing that the English government found it necessary to 
interfere in the matter, and to take vigorous measures 
for the suppression of piracy. Fletcher, who was 
accused on every side of protecting the corsairs, was 
recalled, and Lord Bellamont was appointed in his stead, 
with instructions to extirpate the pirates from the seas. 
He received his appointment in 1695, — although he did 
not enter upon the duties of his office until nearly three 
years after — and immediately began to take measures to 
follow out his instructions. He first urged the govern- 
ment to fit out an armed force to cruise against the buc- 
caneers, but as all the naval force was needed in the war 
with France, which was not yet ended, the request was 
lefused. He then organized a stock company, in which 
tlie king himself, the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Chan- 
cellor Somers, the Earls of Oxford and Romney, Robert 
Livingston and several others, became shareholders, for 
the purpose of fitting out a privateering expedition 
against the pirates. Six thousand pounds were soon 
raised for the enterprise. The Adventure Galley, a fine 
ship, manned with sixty sailors and thirty guns, was at 
once fitted out, and the command of it intrusted to 
Captain William Kidd, a New York sea-captain, who 
happened to be in London at the time, and who had been 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 255 

warmly recommended to Bellamout by Robert Living- 
ston, and, to stimulate him further in the jDursuit of his 
prey, one fifth of the proceeds of the expedition was 
promised him as his share in the enterprise. Kidd had 
previously commanded a privateer in the West Indies, 
and had, for some years, been captain of a packet ship, 
which plied between New York and London. He was a 
resident of the city of New York, where he owned a 
house and lot in Liberty street and passed for a worthy 
and respectable citizen. In 1G91, he had married Sarah 
Oort, the widow of one of his fellow captains and a 
woman of the highest respectability, by whom he had 
one daughter. His house was one of the most com- 
modious and best furnished in the city ; he moved among 
the best circles of society, and nothing in his previous 
conduct or mode of life indicated the terrible career that 
followed the fitting out of this fatal expedition. 

On taking command of the ship, Kidd immediately 
repaired to New York, and, shipping ninety additional 
men, saUed for the Indian seas in quest of pirates. The 
sequel of his career is already too well known to be 
repeated in detail. He succumljed to temptation, joined 
the band which he had been sent to destroy, and became 
one of the most daring and successful pirates that ever 
hoisted the black flag on the seas. His career was short, 
embracing only two years, yet, during that time, lie plun- 
dered scores of ships, amassed countless treasure, and 
made his name a terror on the seas and a by-word for 
future generations. Grown daring by his success, he 
(.-xchanged his ship for a frigate that he had captured, and, 
in 1698, returned to New York. But BeUamont was 



256 HISTORY OF THE 

now governor, and protection was no longer vouchsafed to 
pirates. Passing up Long Island Sound, he landed at 
Gardiner's Island and buried a portion of his treasure ; 
then, dividing his spoils with his crew, he discharged 
them and repaired to Boston, where he quietly took up 
his residence under an assumed name. Here he was met 
by Bellamont, who at once recognized and arrested him. 
He was sent to England for trial, found guilty of piracy, 
sentenced to death, and executed on the 12th of May, 
1701, His wife and daughter continued to reside in 
New York after his death in the strictest seclusion. 
Search was made by the authorities for the buried trea- 
sure, and a large box of gold, silver, and jewels was 
found at the place of deposit on Gardiner's Island. 
This inflamed the imagination of the gold-hunters ; 
rumors of immense sums buried on Long Island and the 
shores of the North River circulated eagerly from 
mouth to mouth, and every likely and vnilikely locahty 
was mined in search of the hidden treasure. The faith 
has even come down to our own times, and the words 
"Kidd's treasure," still suggests to some credulous minds 
visions of untold wealth lying almost at their doors, 
awaiting the touch of the spade and mattock. 

The result of this enterprise caused great excitement 
and indignation, both in America and in England, and 
Bellamont, Livingston, and even the king himself, were 
openly accused of having secretly connived at it and 
shared in the spoils. A motion was made in the House 
of Commons that all who had been interested in the 
adventure should be deprived of their official positions. 
and this motion being lost by a large majority, the noble- 



CITT OF NEW YORK. ^O ' 

men were impeached and forced to undergo the form of 
a trial for their lives ; but the charges against them could 
not be sustained and all the accused were honorably 
acquitted. 

As we have already said, Fletcher continued to admin- 
ister the government for more than two years after he 
had been superseded by Bellamont. During this time, 
various public improvements were made and municipal 
ordinances enacted, indicating the growth of the city. 
Soon after the departure of Kidd from the port of Xew 
York in 1696 on his piratical expedition, the erection of 
Trinity Church as well as that of the new Dutch Church 
— known to us by tradition as the Old Dutch Church — 
in Garden street, was commenced. Both were completed 
in the course of the following year. It was also deter- 
mined to build a new City Hall, the old " Stadt-Huys" 
at Coenties Slip having become so dilapidated that the 
mayor and corporation, finding it impossible to meet 
there any longer, had been compelled to remove to the 
house of George Reparreck, next door. A consultation 
was held as to the most available means for raising the 
necessary funds, and it was decided to sell the old stadt- 
huys and grounds, and to mortgage the ferry -lease for 
fifteen yeai's. It was also resolved that the new hall 
should be completed within a twelvemonth, and a com- 
mittee was appointed to select a site and make the neces- 
sary estimates, but it was not until 1699 that the site at 
the junction of Wall and Broad streets was actually 
selected, and the old stadt-huys sold at public auction. 
This was purchased by a merchant named John Rodman. 

together with the grounds and all the appurtenances, with 
U 



258 



HISTORY OF THE 




The Stiiyvesant ilansion (see page l.'i^). 

the exception of the hell' and royal arms, for the sum of 
nine hundred and twenty pounds stcrhng, the city 
reserving the use of it for a jail a month longer. The 
first building in the city used for a jail was at the corner 
of Dock street and Coenties Slip. The new City Hall 
was built in the form of an L, and open in the middle. 
The dungeons for criminals were in the cellar. The first 
story had two large staircases, and two large and two 
small rooms. The middle of the second story was occu- 
pied by the court room, with the assembly room on one 
side, and the magistrates' room on the other. The 
debtors' colls were in the attic. 

In 1696, Maiden Lane was regulated, and Captain 
Teunis Dekay was permitted to make a cartway through 
Nassau street — designated iu his petition as " the street 
" that runs by the pie-woman's, leading to the city com- 
" nions,'' — recei\dng the soil in compensation for liis 
labor. A cartway was also made along Hanover Square, 
or " Burger's Path," as it was then called. A contract 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 259 

was made for cleaning the streets at thirty pounds ster- 
Ung per annum — a work which had hitherto been done 
by the citizens themselves, every man being required to 
keep the street clean before his own door. 

In 1697, the first attempt at lighting the streets was 
made. This was done by hanging out a lantern and 
candle upon the end of a pole from the window of every 
seventh house, on the nights when there was no moon ; 
the expense being divided equally among the seven 
houses. The first regular night watch, consisting of four 
men, was established during the same year. 

Two persons in each ward were also appointed by the 
corporation to inspect every chimney and hearth once a 
week, the better to secure the city against fire. At this 
time the city numbered six hundred houses, and about 
six thousand inhabitants. 

Great scarcity of bread prevailed in the city during this 
year. None was to be had of the bakers, who declared 
that it was impossible to purchase flour at rates reasonable 
enough to supply their customers at the prices fixed by 
law. The matter was taken into public consideration, 
and a census ordered to be taken of all the wheat, flour 
and bread then within the city. Seven thousand bushels 
of wheat were found — not more than a week's provision 
for the six thousand inhabitants. The scarcity was at 
once attributed to the repeal of the bolting act, which 
had enabled the planters to grind their own flour and to 
hold it back from the general market for private specu- 
lation, and an address was directly forwarded to the 
king, complaining of the famine to which the city was 
reduced, and earnestly entreating him to restore the 



260 HISTORY OF THE 

monopoly. Meanwhile an assize of rye bread was estab • 
lished ; a five-pound loaf being valued at four pence- 
half penny, and the price of rye being fixed at three 
shillings and threepence per bushel. 

On the 2d of April, 1698, Lord Bellamont arrived at 
New York, accompanied by his wife and his cousin, John 
Nanfan, who was also his Heutenant-governor, and was 
received by the citizens with demonstrations of delight. 
Johannes de Peyster, the brother of Abraham de Pey- 
ster, the mayor of 1691, was at this time mayor of the 
city, having succeeded William Merritt, who had filled 
the mayoralty for the past three years. The cor- 
poration at once gave a public dinner to the governor 
and tendered him a complimentary address, and the 
people wei'e not backward in seconding the welcome. 
Bellamont, who was diametricall}^ opposed to the 
policy of Fletcher, directly attached himself to the 
Leislerian part}'. He had already esj)Oused the same 
cause in England, and had aided young Leisler in pro- 
curing the reversion of his fether's attainder. He 
molded his council to suit his own views. Bayard, 
Philipse and the rest of their party, resigned or were 
removed, and a new council was appointed, consisting 
chiefly of the Leislerian party. A new Assembly was 
convened on the 18th of May, 1699, in which the same 
element preponderated. Bellamont's opening speech 
augured well for the future. He spoke of the disorderly 
state of the province, left as it was with a divided 
people, an empty treasury, ruined fortifications and a 
few half-naked soldiers, and branded with the stigma of 
being a rendezvous for pirates. " It would be hard," 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 261 

said he, "if I, who come before j'ou with an honest 
" heart and a resohition to be just to your interests, 
" should meet with greater difficulties in the discharge 
" of his majesty's service than those who have gone 
" before me. I shall take care that there shall be no 
" more misapplication of the public mone}' ; I shall 
" pocket none of it myself, neither shall there be any 
" embezzlement of it by others ; but exact accounts 
" shall be given you when and as often as you 
"require." 

The members of the Assembly-, rejoiced at the pledges 
of their new governor, passed a warm vote of thanks 
for this welcome speech, and voted him a revenue for six 
years. In compliance with his suggestions, they jDassed 
several wholesome acts for the suppression of piracy, 
for the regulation of the elections, and for the indemnifi- 
cation of those who had been excepted from the general 
pardon of 1691. Under this act, the families of Leisler 
and Milborne recovered their estates. The time had now 
come for the exaltation of tliese martyrs. Their remains 
were disinterred with great ceremony, and after lying in 
state for some weeks, were conveyed under guard of a 
military escort to the Dutch church in Garden street, 
and buried there. An immense concourse of citizens 
attended the funeral, which was honored by the presence 
of the governor himself. 

Soon after the arrival of Bellamont, the mayor and 
corporation waited on him, and entreated his assistance 
in the recovery of the coveted bolting monopoly. They 
also raised the sum of fifty pounds sterling for the pur- 
pose of dispatching a special agent to the English govern- 



262 HISTORY OF THE 

meut to represent to them the misery which the repeal 
of this act had occasioned in the city, and a memorial was 
addressed to the king, depicting the prevaihng famine in 
glowing colors, and prophesying utter ruin to New York, 
unless this privilege, which constituted the life of the 
city, should at once be restored to it. But their prayers 
and petitions were of no avail ; the act of the Assembly 
was not repealed ; yet New York continued to thrive 
without the aid of the bolting monopoly. 

In 1099, David Provoost was appointed mayor. Mr. 
Provoost was the son of one of the ancient Dutch burg- 
hers, and a popular man among his fellow-citizens. His 
administration was marked by several public improve- 
ments. Two new market houses were erected, one at 
Coenties SHp and the other at the foot of Broad 
street, and King, now William street, was filled up and 
regulated. Public scavengers were employed to clean 
the streets, and all persons were directed to pave before 
their houses under penalty of a fine of twenty shillings. 
A hospital was established for the poor in a house hired 
for the purpose — no institution of the kind was built 
until three-quarters of a centurj^ after. The ferry was 
farmed out for a term of seven years at a rent of a hun- 
dred and sixty-five pounds sterling per annum. By the 
conditions of the lease, the lessee was required to keep 
two large boats for corn and cattle, and two smaller ones 
for passengers. The rates of fare were fixed at eight 
stuyvers in wampum or a silver twopence for single per- 
sons, or half that sum for each of a company ; a shilling 
for a horse, twopence for a hog, a penny for a sheep, 
etc. The city engaged to build a substantial ferry-house 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 263 

on Nassau or Long Island, which the ferry-man was 
required to keep in repair. The dock was also leased to 
Philip French at an annual rent of forty pounds sterling ; 
the lessee being required within a year to clean the dock 
and slip till a sandy bottom should be found, and to 
keej) it, and the wharves about it, clean in the future. 
A. variety of municipal ordinances were passed the same 
year, the general tendency of which was to restrain all 
public excesses and to promote the welfiire of the city. 
The firing of guns within the precincts of the city was 
strictly forbidden. A powder-house was ordered to be 
built for public use, and all persons were interdicted from 
keeping more than fifty pounds of powder in their houses 
at one time. An impost was levied upon all flour and 
bread brought into the city, for the benefit of the public 
treasury ; this tax, however, proved unpopular, and was 
annulled a few weeks after. 

In 1700, Isaac de Riemer, a merchant of Holland 
origin was appointed mayor. He was a descendant of 
one of the oldest families of the city, and a nephew of 
the well-known Cornelius Steenwyck, the former mayor. 

Bellamont, in the meantime, had gone to Boston, hav- 
ing lieen appointed governor of Massachusetts as well 
as of New York, to look after the interests of the Board 
of Trade, as he had especially been instructed to do. 
This board, consisting of a president and seven members, 
had been instituted in 1696, just after the appointment 
uf Bellamont as governor, and the commerce of the colo- 
nies placed under its supervision. The acts of trade 
restricting this commerce had been made still more strin- 
gent, and courts of Yice-Admiralty established in all 



264 HISTORY OF THE 

the colonies, invested with supreme authority in all cases 
pertaining to the admiralty or revenue. The colonists 
protested bitterly against this measure, but the English 
government sustained the courts, and imposed oaths 
upon the colonial governors to enforce the acts of trade. 
The people however rebelled against the new author- 
ities, and the revenue laws were constantly violated, 
especially in New England. Bellamont's address and 
manners soon made him popular among his Boston 
subjects, but they strenuously resisted his efforts to 
enforce the navigation acts, and he returned to New 
York, having effected nothing. Here, he soon became 
involved in a new controversy with the New York 
merchants, who complained of him to the Board of Trade 
and to Parliament. But before the affair could be inves- 
tigated, tlie proceedings were suspended by the sudden 
death of the governor. He was buried with funeral 
honors in the chapel of the fort, and a few days after- 
wards, his coat of arms was carried in great state and 
placed in front of the City Hall in Wall street, together 
with that of his successor, John Nanfan. Here they 
remained until the arrival of Cornbvny and the accession 
of the anti-Leislerian party in 1702, when they were 
torn down and contemptuously broken in pieces. 

The authority now devolved upon Lieutenant-Governor 
Nanfan until the appointment of a new governor, but, 
he being absent in Barbadoes, a violent contest took place 
in respect to the temporary administration of the gov- 
ernment. The anti-Leislerians insisted that it belonged 
of right to Colonel William Smith, the senior member 
of the council, while the Leislerians, who were in the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 265 

majority, declared that a temporary chairman must be 
elected, as had previously been done after the death of 
Sloughter. In the midst of the discussion Nanfan 
arrived, and opportunely assumed the direction of the 
government. 

Nanfan was as warm a Leislerian as Bellamont, thougli 
less judicious in his course of policy, and his first 
Assembly was imbued with the same spirit. In the late 
contest, the claims of Smith to the chair had been 
warmly supported by Peter Schuyler and Robert Liv- 
ingston, the latter of whom had been one of Leisler's 
bitterest foes, and had been denoimced by Milborne in 
his dying words upon the scaffold. The time had now 
come for him to pay the penalty. The new Assembly 
removed him from his office of Secretary of Indian 
Affairs and Collector of Customs, and demanded his 
accounts, which he could not furnish, as the Assembly 
well knew, for they were at this time in the hands of 
Lady Bellamont. LTpon his failure to produce them, 
he was pronounced a defaulter, and expelled from the 
council, and his property was confiscated for the public 
benefit. 

Not less was the confusion in the city affairs. At this 
time, the municipal government was composed of a mayor, 
recorder, six aldermen, and six assistants, the mayor 
having the casting vote. In the fall election of 1701, 
Thomas Noell, a merchant and an anti-Leislerian, Avas 
elected mayor, and Abraham Gouverneur, a Leislerian 
and the husband of the widow of Milborne, recorder. 
The Dock Ward returned Philip French and Robert 
Lurting, both anti-Leislerians, as alderman and assistant. 



266 HISTORV OF THE 

In the Out Ward, Martin Clock and Abraham Messier, 
and, in tlie North Ward, Jacob Boelen and Gerrit Oncle- 
berg, all Leislerians, were elected to the same offices. 
These returns were not disputed. In the other wards the 
Leislerians also claimed to have gained the victory, but 
the contest was so close that they were apprehensive that 
the new mayor would refuse to receive their oaths, 
denying their election, and to meet this exigency, they 
determined to be sworn in by the retiring mayor, De 
Riemer, who was one of their party, which was accord- 
ingly done. Johannes de Peyster, alderman, and 
Abraham Brasier, assistant, of the East Ward ; David 
Provoost, alderman, and Peter William Roome, assist- 
ant, of the West Ward ; and Nicholas Roosevelt, 
alderman, and Hendrick Jallisen, assistant, of the South 
Ward, were the members elect of the disputed dis- 
tricts. 

On the 14th of October, Mayor Noell took the oaths 
of office before the governor at the fort, then proceeded 
with the Common Council to Trinity Church to listen 
to the annual sermon, according to the usual custom. 
This done, he proceeded to the City Hall, and, having 
proclaimed his commission, proceeded to swear in the 
the members elect, but all refused to take the oaths 
except French and Lurting, alleging that they had been 
sworn in by (he retiring mayor. On hearing this, he pro- 
ceeded to swear in Brandt Schuyler, John Hutchins and 
William Morris as aldermen, and Johannes Jansen, 
Robert White, and Jeremiah Tuthill as assistants of the 
disputed wards. This proceeding caused so great an 
excitement, that Noell was finally compelled to dismiss 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 267 

the assembly, without liaving sworn in the new city 
officials. 

The city remained thus without a government until the 
11th of November, wlien Noell again proceeded to the 
Cit}^ Hall to swear in Schuyler, Hutchins, Morris and 
their assistants. The Leislerian members were already 
there in their places as members of the common council. 
Regardless of their protests, the mayor proceeded to 
swear in their antagonists, when the whole twenty took 
their seats together, each fully determined to share in 
the administration of the government. Finding that 
nothing could be done with so intractable an assembly, 
Noell ended by dismissing them all for a fortnight, and 
availed himself of the recess to appeal to the Supreme 
Court, which settled the matter by giving seats to Schuy- 
ler and Hutchins, and their assistants of the anti-Leisle- 
rian, and De Peyster and his assistant of the Leislerian 
party. The board thus stood equally divided, but the 
balance of power remained in the hands of the anti-Leis- 
lerians, the mayor having the casting vote. The affair 
occasioned the most intense excitement, and was one of 
the most turbulent elections ever witnessed in the city. 

News soon arrived that Lord Cornbury had been 
appointed as Lord Bellamont's successor, and Bayard, 
anxious to gain him over to his party, forwarded ad- 
dresses to him and to parliament, denouncing the Leisler- 
ians, and especially Nanfan, whose administration he vili- 
fied in the most odious terms. News of this proceeding 
coming to Nanfan's ears, he arrested and imprisoned Bay- 
ard, together with John Hutchins, one of the newly elected 
aldermen, who had taken an active part in procuring sig- 



268 HISTORY OF THE 

natures to the obnoxious addresses. The iDrisoners were 
tried by a special court, under the very act which Bayard 
himself had procured to secure the condemnation of Leis- 
ler. This act, which was the first passed by Sloughter's 
assembly, provided "that any person who should 
" endeavor by any manner of way, or upon any pretence, 
" by force of arms or otherwise, to disturb the peace, 
"good and quiet of the province, should be esteemed 
" rebels and traitors, and should incur the pains and 
"penalties which the laws of England liad provided for 
" such offence." 

As little fairness as had been shown in the trial of 
Leisler was now accorded to Bayard; who was indicted 
for rebellion and treason, for inciting the soldiers in the 
fort to rebellion, and for persuading them to sign libels 
against the existing government. The majority of the 
judges were Dutch, and were well known as his declared 
foes. Atwood, the chief-justice, pressed the charge in 
the most violent manner, and, despite all the efforts of 
the prisoner's friends and of the counsel, he was found 
guilty and sentenced to death. Hutchins was also tried 
and condemned. Thus far the cases of Bayard and 
Leisler were parallel ; but the former received leniency 
which had not been accorded to the latter — a reprieve 
was granted him until the king's pleasure should be 
known. Suddenly, the arrival of Cornbury changed the 
aspect of affairs. Bayard was released and promoted 
to honor, the Leislerian party fell into disgrace, Atwood 
was forced to flee the country, and the new governor 
declared himself at the head of the anti-Leislerians. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Cornbury in New York — Public Improvements — First Negro Plot in the City— Admin- 
istration of Robert Hunter. 



In May, 1702, Edward H3'de, Lord Cornbury, eldest 
son of the Earl of Clarendon, arrived, charged with 
the administration of the government of New York 
and the Jerseys. These provinces had been divorced 
for a considerable time, but, difficulties having arisen 
between the proprietors of the latter, they had finally 
ceded their patents to Queen Anne as the easiest method 
of settling affairs and ridding themselves of a dignity 
which they had found to be an expensive luxury. Upon 
this retrocession, the queen placed both provinces under 
the command of Lord Cornbury, a near kinsman of her 
own, and they remained thus reunited until 1738, 
though each presei'ved a distinct legislative assembly. 
Cornbury was a reckless adventurer, profligate and 
unprincipled, who had fled from England to escape the 
demands of his creditors, and whose sole claLm to this 
important command rested on his kindred to royalty. 
Eager to acquire wealth from his new subjects, and 



270 HISTORY OF THE 

wholly regardless of their wishes or interests, he soon 
completely alienated their affections and became the 
object of univ^ersal detestation. Cornbury had received 
a long list of instructions from the queen. By these, he 
was enjoined to rule the two provinces with impartiality, 
to grant liberty of conscience to all except papists, to 
consider Quakers eligible for offices of public trust and to 
receive their affirmations instead of oaths ; yet, while 
tolerating all religions, to endeavor to make the Church 
of England the established church of the land ; to keep 
the churches that were already built in repair, to build 
more as occasion required, and to furnish each minister 
with a house and glebe at the common charge ; to pun- 
ish drunkenness, swearing, and vice of all kinds ; to 
encourage trade and traders, particularly the Royal 
African Company of England, and to recommend to the 
said Company to see that the colony had a constant and 
sufficient supply of merchantable negroes at moderate 
rates. He was also instructed to endeavor to get a law 
passed for restraining inhuman severity to Christiafi ser- 
vants and slaves, and to make the willful murder of 
Indians and negroes an offence punishable with death. 
The spirit of these instructions conveys a fair idea of the 
state of popular feeling at this time in respect to slaves 
and slavery. These degraded beings were held in the 
most abject bondage, and the strictest laws were passed 
for restraining their liberty. Not more than four were 
allowed to assemble at a time, nor were they permit- 
ted to pass the city gates without the permission of 
their master. The use of weapons was not permitted 
them, they were not suffered to own either houses or 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 271 

land, and their masters were forbidden to set them free 
under penalty of a heavy fine. As time wore on, their 
burdens grew still heavier. In 1709, a slave-market was 
erected on the site of the old block-house at the foot 
of Wall street slip, where all negroes or Indians who 
were to be hired were ordered to stand in readiness 
for bidders. In the following year, a city ordinance was 
passed, providing that any negro or Indian slave who 
should presume to appear in the streets after nightfall 
without a lantern with a lighted candle in it should 
be committed to jail, to remain there until released 
by the payment of a fine of eight shillings by his 
master, and as an equivalent, the authorities pledged 
themselves that the culprit should receive thirty-nine 
lashes at the public wliipping-post, should his master 
desire. But the negroes did not submit tamely to these 
despotic regulations. From time to time, an outbreak 
warned the whites of the strength of the power which 
they were endeavoring to repress, and of the deadly 
peril which was brooding among them. Such an instance 
occurred in 1707 at Newtown, on Long Island, where 
a Mr. Hallet, with his wife and five children, was mur- 
dered one night in cold blood by two of his slaves. 
The murderers were seized, tried, condemned, and 
executed with the most horrible tortures. They con- 
fessed the crime, saying that they had committed it 
in revenge, because they had been forbidden to go 
out on Sunday. The punishments inflicted for this 
and similar deeds were terrible. The wretched crimi- 
nals were chained to the stake and burned alive, 
broken on the wheel, or suspended to the branches of 



272 HISTORY OF THE 

trees and left there to perish. A negro suspected of a 
crime was tried at once under a special act of the Assem- 
bly by a court composed of three justices and five free- 
holders, and invested with authority to try, convict and 
sentence to immediate execution. An old newspaper 
now before us, of the date of January 28, 1733, records 
the case of a negro who was seized on Monday, tried on 
Tuesday, and burned on Thursday in the presence of a 
crowd of witnesses. Truly, we seem to be not very far 
off from the barbaric ages ! 

Upon his arrival, the new governor immediately 
attached himself to the anti-Leislerians, and openly 
avowed himself at the head of the party. Through his 
efforts, the first Assembly that met after his coming was 
composed chiefly of the same faction. Anxious to win a 
continuance of his favor, they voted him a revenue for 
seven years, increased his salary from six to twelve hun- 
dred pounds, and presented him with two thousand 
pounds to defray the expenses of his voyage. Xor w^ere 
Mayor Noell and the corporation less profuse in their 
demonstrations of affection and fidelity. A public din- 
ner was given in honor of his arrival ; he was presented 
with the freedom of the city in a gold box, and a con- 
gratulatory address was tendered him by the civic 
authorities. In honor of the opening administration, 
the members of his suite were also made freemen, toge- 
ther with the soldiers of the garrison, and all citizens 
who were too poor to purchase their freedom. At this 
time, the freedom of the city was not an empty name — it 
conveyed the right to trade, to vote and to be voted for, 
and to share in all other municipal privileges, and was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. Zi.i 

indeed more pregnant with meaning than is the present 
act of naturaHzation. A census of the inhabitants was 
ordered to be made, and the population was found to 
amount to 5,250. 

Hitherto, there had been no free grammar school in 
New York. Various private schools had been set up 
from time to time under the supervision and with the 
permission of the government, and ^gidius Luyck had 
founded a flourishing classical school in the days of 
Stujvesant, which had grown into a flourishing institu- 
tion and attracted many pupils from the distant settle- 
ments. But, owing to the frequent changes in the 
government and the internal disorder of the city, this 
had been broken up ; and though various individuals had 
essayed from time to time to play the pedagogue, their 
efforts had met with moderate success, and at this time 
education was at a very low ebb in the city. At length the 
corporation took the matter in hand, and, at a meeting 
held soon after Cornbury's arrival, resolved that there 
ought to be and must be a free grammar school in the 
city, and that, as there was no teacher to be had in New 
York who was capable of taking charge of one, steps 
should immediately be taken to procure one from Eng- 
land. A petition was accordingly addressed to the 
Bishop of London, entreating him to send them a 
native-born English teacher, of good learning, pious life 
and conversation, and a mild and even temper ; and 
Lord Cornbury was urged to back this petition by his 
influence, and to recommend it to the notice of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts ; and likewise to appropriate to it part of the 
18 



274 HISTORY OF THE 

IDVoceeds of the King's Farm. This petition was repeatedly 
urged by the citizens upon the notice of the governor, 
but it was not until 1705 that the school was finally 
established, and Andrew Clarke appointed master. 

Soon after the arrival of Lord Cornbury, a disease, 
strongly resembling the yellow fever, was imported from 
St. Thomas into the city. The infection spread rapidly, 
nearly every one attacked with it died in a few hours, 
and the epidemic was long remembered as "the great 
" sickness of New York." The frightened inhabitants 
fled in terror from the infected city to the Jersey and 
Long Island shores. Lord Cornbury, with his council, 
also fled from the pestilence, and took up his quarters 
at Jamaica on Long Island. This village was under 
the control of the Presbyterians, who, a short time 
before, had erected a pretty little church, and had pur- 
chased a house and glebe for the use of their minister. 
Tliis parsonage was decidedly the best house in the town, 
and, on hearing of the coming of the governor, Mr. Hub- 
bard, the minister, removed with his family to a neigh- 
boring cottage, and courteously tendered it for his 
excellency's accommodation. The hospitality was 
accepted, and requited in a somewhat peculiar manner. 
Like Fletcher, Cornbury had for his aim the establish- 
ment of the Episcopal church in the province. The 
handful of Episcopalians in Jamaica had long looked 
with an envious eye on the prosperity of their Presbyte- 
rian neighbors ; now, sure of receiving the protection of 
Cornbury, they determined on reaping the fruits of their 
labors. The church had been erected by a vote of the 
town, and no provision had been made for securing it 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 275 

to the use of any particular denomination. Knowing 
this, and arming themselves with the acts of Fletcher's 
Assembly, the Ejiiscopalians entered the church one Sun- 
day between the hours of morning and afternoon service, 
and took possession of the building. A scene of vio- 
lence ensued, both parties disputed possession of the 
church, the pews were torn out in the contest, and the 
struggle was only ended by the interference of the gov- 
ernor, who sustained the claims of Episcopal partj^ A 
long and tedious litigation followed, but the Episcopalians 
retained possession until 1728, though but two of the 
denomination had contributed a dollar towards the build- 
ing of the edifice. N"or was this all ; the sheriff seized 
upon the glebe, and leased it for the benefit of the Epis- 
copal party ; and as a crowning act of perfidy, Corubury, 
on his I'eturn to New York, instead of restoring the par- 
sonage to his hospitable host, basely surrendered it into 
the hands of the Episcopal clergyman, who occupied it 
henceforth as his place of residence. 

It must certainly be admitted that, in encouraging 
the establishment of the Episcopal religion, Cornbury 
carried out his instructions to the very letter, and it 
was unfortunate for the popularity of the church that 
its earliest patrons in the province should have con- 
sisted of men of his stamp. In 1703, he induced 
the city authorities to donate a cemetery to Trinity 
Church, now the established church of the city. In 
the same 3'ear, the King's Farm, which had originally 
been the property of the Dutch West India Company, 
and which had been increased in 1671 by the purchase 
of a large tract of laud from the heirs of Aneke Jans, 



276 HISTOEY OF THE 

was presented by Corubury iiuto Trinity Cliurcli. Thus 
was laid the foundation of the immense revenues which 
the church still continues to enjoy, and which place it in 
wealth as well as in antiquity, at the head of the Episco- 
pal church in America. The schools were also placed 
under the control of the same denomination, and an ordi- 
nance was enacted, forbidding any person to teach school 
in the province who had not first received a license from 
the Bishop of London. 

About this time, war was proclaimed by England 
against France and Spain, and the Assembly that met in 
1703, deeming it expedient to increase the fortifications, 
voted an appropriation of fifteen hundred pounds for 
the erection of two batteries at the Narrows, adding 
that it should be used for no other purpose whatever 
This sum was raised by a poll-tax, the conditions of 
which were curious enough to be worth recording. 
Every member of the council was required to pay forty 
shillings ; an assembly man, twenty shillings ; a lawyer 
in practice, twenty shillings ; every man wearing a 
periwig, five shillings and sixpence ; a bachelor of 
twenty-five years and upwards, two shillings and three- 
pence ; every freeman between the ages of sixteen and 
sixty, ninepence ; and the owners of slaves one shilling 
for each. The required sum was raised in this manner ; 
but, regardless of the conditions on which it was given, 
the governor drew it from the treasury and applied it to 
liis own use, refusing to account to the Assembly for its 
expenditure. Exasperated at such a gross violation of 
trust, the Assembly at once demanded a treasurer, and 
refused to make any further appropriations until one 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 277 

should be appointed, declaring that they were English- 
men, and had a right to control the expenditure of their 
own money. " I know of no right that you have. 
" except such as the queen is pleased to allow you," 
was the curt reply of the governor, as he angrilj^ dis- 
solved the Assembly. 

The new Assembly that was convened in 1705 was not 

much more pliable. Money was needed, for the war 
was still carried on, and the city was almost defenceless. 
A French privateer had already entered the harbor and 
terrified the inhabitants, and they had no security 
against other and moi'e dangerous visitants ; but they 
remembered that they had already paid for two batteries 
at the Narrows, the first stone of which was not yet laid, 
and they were loth to make another such investment of 
their money. Seeing the real need of fortifications, 
however, they at length voted three thousand pounds to 
be applied to their erection and to the maintenance of a 
company of scouts on the frontiers, but only on con- 
dition that it should be disbursed by a person of their 
own choosing. To this, Cornbury reluctantly con- 
sented as the only means of raising the money, then 
immediately prorogued the Assembly. In 1706, it was 
again convened, but, being more refractory than ever, 
was speedily dissolved by the governor. 

The municipal authorities, awake to the danger of the 
city, joined in the demand for fortifications, and, on the 
appropriation of the money, summoned all the citizens 
to aid in the work of strengthening the town. The resi- 
dents of the six city wards were ordered to work in 
turn upon the fortifications, either in person or by sub- 



278 HISTORY OF THE 

stitute, whenever summoned by the mayor. The town- 
crier went through the streets of each ward in turn, and, 
caUing the inhabitants by thq sound of a drum, pro- 
claimed the time and place of rendezvous for the 
next morning's labor. The citizens repaired to the forti- 
fications, armed with picks and shovels, and strengthened 
the palisades, repaired the half-ruined artillery-mounts, 
mounted the guns, and placed the city in a defensive 
posture. From two to four hundred men were employed 
daily upon the works ; and the inhabitants were ordered 
to hold themselves in readiness to appear in arms at the 
first alarm to repel the French fleet that was hourly 
expected. But their fears were groundless — no attack 
was made on the city. 

Meanwhile, the governor had spared nothing which 
might i-ender him odious in the eyes of his people. Not 
content with his previous infringement of their civil and 
religious rights, he pushed his despotism so far as to for- 
bid the Dutch congregation to open their church or to 
listen to their preacher. He imprisoned two Presby- 
terian ministers for preaching without his license, and 
practised the most shameless fraud and peculation in the 
discharge of his official duties. Not content with this, 
to render himself still more contemptible, he j^lunged 
into debauchei'ies and extravagances of every sort, 
parading the fort in the dress of a woman, and carousing 
and revelling in the most shameless manner. He was 
deeply involved in debt ; but, protected as he was by 
the insignia of his office, none of his creditors dared to 
molest him. Wearied at length beyond endurance with 
this detestable tyranny, the citizens of New York 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 279 

and New Jersey joined in a petition to tlie queen for his 
removal. It was but the repetition of the numerous 
complaints which had long been sounding from across 
the water ; and Anne, finding it impossible longer to turn 
a deaf ear to the prayers of the colonists, reluctantly 
yielded, and revoked her kinsman's commission. Hardly 
had she done this when his hungry creditors seized upon 
their prey, and threw him into the debtor's pi-ison in the 
upper story of the new City Hall in Wall street, where 
he remained until the death of his father, the Earl of 
Clarendon, raised him from his cell to the peerage of 
Great Britain. 

Having thus followed the profligate nobleman through 
his brief but dissolute career, let us take a retrospective 
view of the prominent events in municipal affairs during 
the time of his administration. It is not our purpose to 
record dry documents, or to catalogue city ordinances 
which would fill folios with but little interest to tlie 
general reader ; yet we wish to note the milestones in 
the progress of the city which may serve to indicate its 
steady and rapid growth. 

We have already noted the large donations of muni- 
cipal privileges by which the corporation ushered in the 
administration of Cornbury. At the same time, the rates 
for purchasing the freedom of the city were changed to 
twenty shillings for a merchant or trader, and six shillings 
for a mechanic. New ordinances were passed in respect 
to cleaning the streets — a matter in which the primitive 
New Yorkei-s seem to have experienced a foretaste of 
the trouble endured by their descendants. The previous 
ordinances having failed of effect, it was enacted in 1702 



280 HISTORY OF THE 

that all the inhabitants should sweep the dirt in heaps in 
front of their doors on Friday morning, and have it con- 
veyed away and thrown into the river or elsewhere 
before Saturday night under penalty of six shillings. 
This, the cartmen were required to carry away at the 
rate of three cents per load, or six, if they loaded their 
carts themselves ; and were subjected to heavy fines 
in case of a refusal. A pound was instituted for the 
keeping of stray cattle, and a pound-master appointed, 
who was to retain one-half of the fees as his due, and to 
pay the remaining half into the city treasury. The fees 
were fixed at ninepence for a horse, fourpence-halfpenny 
for neat cattle, and threepence for sheep and swine. It 
was also made lawful for any person to kill swine found 
running at large south of the fresh water. In 1706, a 
widow by the name of Rebecca Van Schaick received the 
appointment of city pound-keeper. 

In the autumn succeeding Lord Cornbury's arrival, 
Philip French, a merchant, and one of the leaders of the 
anti-Leislerian party, was appointed to the mayoi'alty. 
Mr. French was the son-in-law of Frederick Philipse, 
the richest man in the province and one of Leisler's 
bitterest foes, and he warmly seconded the quarrel of his 
fatlier. He had been among the most active in circulat- 
ing the addresses which, during the administration of 
Nanfan, had so nearly cost Nicholas Bayard his life, and 
had been forced to flee to preserve his own liberty. On 
the arrival of Cornbury, the scale turned, and, from an 
outlaw, he came suddenly to the head of the municipal 
government. Before his term of office expired, he was 
forced to make a journey to Europe on business, and 



CITY OF NEW TORK. 281 

resigned the charge of affairs into the hands of Sampson 
Broughton, the city recorder. 

In 1703, William Peartree, a West India merchant 
and trader, was chosen mayor, and continued in the offic<> 
for the ensuing four years. He was active and efficient, 
somewhat fond of military life, and a fitting magistrate 
to superintend the fortifications rendered necessary by 
the exigencies of war during his administration. He had 
a house and grounds on Beaver street, between New 
street and Broadway, where he resided for a long time, 
and died hi 1713, leaving one daughter, who married 
William Smith, a New York merchant. 

During the first year of his administration, the French 
Protestant church Du Saint-Esprit was built in Pine 
street by the Waldenses and Huguenots, many of whom 
had settled in New York and its vicinity. The Rev. 
James Laborie was the first pastor, and the church soon 
numbered a flourishing congregation. The Waldenses 
had a settlement at Staten Island ; a large number had 
also settled in Brooklyn. The Huguenots had founded 
a settlement at New Rochelle in 1689 on lands pur- 
chased for them by Jacob Leisler ; and, on Saturday 
night, after finishing their week's work, the zealous exiles 
would walk down to their church at Manhattan, and, 
spending the night with their brethren of New York, 
walk back to their distant settlement the next night 
after service, singing their hymns by the way, to be in 
time to commence their tasks on Monday morning. This 
church was one of the monuments of olden times which, 
resisting age, and the more destructive fire which swept 
away so many of our landmarks, continued to exist 



282 



HISTORY OF THE 



uutil quite a recent date. The descendants of its peo- 
ple long congregated in Franklin street, but were finally 
crowded out by business, and removed to their" present 
chm'cli in West 2 2d street. 




French Church in Pine street, erected in 1704. 

During the same year, a catechising school for negroes 
was opened by the Rev. "William Vesey, the rector of 
Trinity Church — the first attempt made in the city 
towards providing any kind of instruction for this 
degraded people. It was from this clergyman that Yesey 
street derived its name. He remained in the city for 
several years, then returned to England to become the 
commissary of the Bishop of London. Church, Chapel 
and Rector streets also owe their names to the same 
clerical origin. 

About the same time, Beekman's Swamp, the abode 
of the tanners of olden times and of the leatlier-dealers 
of to-day, was leased to Rip Yan Dam, a member of the 
council, for twenty-one years at a yearly rent of twenty 
shillings. Of this swamp, more anon. Not many jiublic 
improvements were made during Cornbury's administra- 
tion ; he cared but Httle for the growth of the city, and 



CITY OF NEW YCRK. 283 

the occurrence of the war diverted the thoughts of the 
citizens from works of this kind to those of jnibUc defence. 

In the autumn of 1705, a riot occurred which occa- 
sioned considerable excitement. Three Enghsh priva- 
teers brought a Spanish man-of-war of twenty guns as a 
prize into the hai"bor of New York. She had only been 
captured after a desperate conflict, and was heavily laden 
with a rich cargo. Elated by their victory, the privateers- 
men were roaming through the streets of the city, when 
they came by some accident into collision with the sherifl', 
with whom they had a violent quarrel. Exasperated by 
some words which incautiously escaped him, they sur- 
rounded his house and assaulted and beat back those who 
came to his rescue ; then, encouraged by this success, and 
incensed b}' a rumor that the soldiers of the garrison had 
been called out to suppress them, they next attacked two 
army officers, and wounding one severely, stabbed Lieu- 
tenant Featherstonehaugh, the other, through the heart. 
The murder excited general alarm ; the drum was beat 
to arms, and a detachment of soldiers, backed by a 
party of marines from the ships of war in the harbor, 
quickly charged upon the mutinous privateersmen, and, 
killing one and wounding several others, forced the whole 
party to surrender. Erasmus Wilkins, the murderer of 
the officer, was arrested, tried, convicted and executed. 

In 1707, Ebenezer Wilson, a prominent merchant and 
politician of the city, was appointed mayor. During his 
administration, Water street was extended from Old Shp 
to John street. Broadway was also paved from Trinity 
church to the Bowling Green, and the residents permitted 
to plant trees before their houses. These pavements 



284 HISTORY OF THE 

were of cobble stones, the gutter curb being of wood. 
The gutters ran through the middle of the streets. 
Brick was universally used for sidewalks — flag-stones 
being as yet unknown to the city authorities. The posts 
for tying horses were also ordered to be removed from 
the streets. New and more stringent regulations were 
passed in respect to fires, the fire-wardens were directed 
to keep strict watch of all hearths and chimneys within 
the city and to see that the fire-buckets were hung up 
in their right places throughout the wards, and two 
hooks and eight ladders were purchased at the public 
expense for the use of the embryo fire-department. 

The ferry lease, granted in 1699, having now expired, 
the ferry was leased again on similar conditions to James 
Harding, at a yearly rent of one hundred and eighty 
pounds sterling. The rates of ferriage remained the 
same. The lessee was required to keep a house of 
entertainment at the new brick ferry-house which had 
been built by the corporation on Long Island, and to keep 
the premises, consisting of a house, barn, well, and land- 
ing-bridge, in good repair. He was also i-equired to keep a 
pound for cattle, and to keep two scows and two small 
boats constantly plying between the shores. These boats 
were to receive and discharge passengers and freight on 
Mondays and Thursdays at Countesses' Key,* or the foot 
of Maiden Lane ; on Tuesdays and Fridays, at Burger's 
Path,t or Hanover Square ; and on Wednesdays and 

• So called from the Countess of Bellamont. 

f This appellation originated in this wise. The land in the vicinity of Hanover 
Square and William street having been originally owned by Borger Joris, one of 
the early Dutch settlers, the latter street became known as Borger's, afterwards 
corrupted to Burger's Path. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 285 

Thursdays at the dock at Coenties Slip. The landing- 
pUace on the Long Ishmd shore was a little below that 
of the present Fulton ferry. 

Mayor Wilson retained his office for three years. 
Before the first had expired, news reached the city of 
the recall of Lord Cornbury. His future career we have 
already indicated. On the 18th of December, 1708, 
John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, who had been 
appointed the spring before as Cornbury's successor, 
arrived at New York, and was joyfully welcomed by the 
citizens. In April, 1709, he convened his first Assembly, 
of whom he demanded the grant of a permanent revenue 
and the payment of the governmental debts, together 
with a full examination of the public accounts, " that it 
" might be known to all the world that the public debt 
"was not contracted in his time." This last request was 
hailed by the colonists as a good omen of the just inten- 
tions of their new governor. But past experience had 
taught them the importance of retaining the control of 
the revenue in their own hands, as the only means 
whereby they could secure a real power in the govern- 
ment, and they were little disposed to grant the first 
demand of Lovelace. They offered to raise twenty-five 
hundred pounds for the expenses of the ensuing year, 
sixteen hundred of which were to be appropriated to the 
governor's salary, and the remaining nine hundred to the 
maintenance of the forts at New York, Albany, and 
Schenectady, together with the payment of printing bills 
and other contingent expenses. The conduct of Corn- 
bury and his predecessors had taught them a useful les- 
son, and they were firmly resolved henceforth to grant 



28G HISTORY OF THE 

none but annual appropriations, and thus to make the 
salary of the governor dependent upon his good conduct 
from year to year. How well Lovelace would have rel- 
ished this independent proceeding can never be known, 
for he died on the 5th of May, 1709, the same day on 
which the act was passed, leaving the government in 
the hands of the lieutenant-governor, Major Richard 
Ingoldsby, our old acquaintance in the afiFair of Leisler. 
He administered the government for eleven months, 
when the complaints of his subjects concerning his mis- 
management of a hostile expedition which had been dis- 
patched against Canada, caused his removal. Gerardus 
Beekman, the president of the council, assumed the direc- 
tion of affairs during the short period that intervened 
befoi'e the arrival of the newly-appointed governor. 

Robert Hunter arrived in the early part of the sum- 
mer of 1710, and immediately assumed the direction of 
the government. He was a fair sample of the freaks of 
fortune. Born of humble Scotch parentage, he was 
apprenticed while yet a boy to the service of an 
apothecary. The embryo governor soon tired of the 
mortar and pestle, and it was not long before he ran 
away, and enlisted in the army as a common soldier. 
He was handsome, talented and ambitious, and possessed 
of an education far above his station ; these qualities 
attracted the notice of his superiors, and procured him 
a speedy promotion. He soon became a favorite of 
the officers, preferment followed preferment in rapid 
succession, and ere many years had passed, the humble 
apothecary-boy had risen to the rank of a brigadier in 
the English army. His fine talents and graceful man- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 287 

ners won him the friendship of many of the distinguished 
literary men of the day, Addison and Swift among the 
rest, and the liand of an English heiress, Lady Hay. 
through whose influence he obtained the commission of 
lieutenant-governor of Virginia. While on his way to 
his new command, in 1707, he was captured by a French 
privateer and carried back a prisoner to Europe. But 
fortune, which seemed harsh to him in this single 
instance, was only reserving him for a higher destiny. 
After a short imprisonment, he was exchanged, and 
invested with the government of the provinces of New 
York and New Jersey. In education, mind and man- 
ners, he was superior to most of his predecessors ; but 
he had received strict instructions to guard the claims of 
the crown against the demands of the people, and to 
repress the spirit of independence which had manifested 
itself so strongly of late in their legislative bodies. 

With the new governor came three thousand Ger- 
mans, natives of the Palatinate, who, driven from their 
homes by the inhuman commands of Louis XIV. at the 
instigation of Louvois, had besought the English gov- 
ernment to give them homes in the New World. Ten 
thousand pounds sterling were appropriated by parlia- 
ment to defray the expenses of the unfortunate exiles, 
who, in return, indentured themselves for a term of years 
to manufacture tar for the naval stores of Great Britain. 
This was the commencement of German immigration. 
A considerable number of the new-comers remained 
in New York, where they built the Lutherai^ church 
in Broadway on the site of the future Grace church 
soon after their arrival ; some ascended the Hudson River 



288 HISTORY OK THE 

to Livingston's Manor, and commenced the cultivation 
of the tract of land now known as the German Flats, 
and by far the greater part migrated to Pennsylvania 
and laid the foundation of the German population which 
now forms so large an element in that State. 

On his arrival, Hunter directly attached himself to the 
anti-Leislerian party, which, at this time as formerly, for 
the most part comprised the aristocracy of the city. His 
first council was composed of Gerardus Beekman, whom 
we have already mentioned as administering the govern- 
ment after the dismissal of Ingoldsby; Rip Van Dam, a 
Holland merchant and one of the wealthiest men of the 
city ; Killian Van Rensselaer, of the family of the well- 
known patroon of Rensselaerswick ; Judge Montpesson, 
an eminent lawyer, John Barbai-ie, one of the early 
Huguenot settlers, and Frederick Philipse, already known 
to us from his action in the revolution of Leisler in 1789. 

Immediately on his arrival in New York, Hunter 
secured the support of Lewis Morris, one of the most 
influential land-owners in New York and New Jersey. 
He was the son of Richard Morris, an officer in 
Cromwell's army, who had emigrated to America soon 
after the retrocession of the province to the English, and 
purchased a manor ten miles square in the neighbor- 
hood of Harlem, to which he gave the name of Morrisania. 
Dying soon after, he left his only son to the care of his 
brother Lewis, who took up his residence on the estate 
in question, and at his death, made his nephew his sole 
heir. liCwis ^Morris* was an adherent of the Leislerian 

* Richard Morris emigrated about 1670. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 289 

party, and he and his descendants long continued to 
exert a powerful influence on the affairs of the province. 

The first act of Governor Hunter's administration was 
to join with the New England States in a project for the 
conquest of Canada. This had always been a favorite 
scheme of the English ; and the citizens of New York 
were especially interested in its success. Acadia had 
just been conquered by Francis Nicholson, the governor 
of Virginia, and its inhabitants expelled without striking 
a blow ; and the door seemed thus opened to an easy 
victory. The Assembly, on being convened, heartily 
sanctioned the proposed expedition, and appropi'iated 
ten thousand pounds towards defraying the expense. To 
raise the money, bills of credit were issued, and paper 
money was thus first introduced into New York. A 
large body of troops, raised from New York, New Jersey 
and Connecticut, assembled at Albany under the com- 
mand of Nicholson, where they were joined by a rein- 
forcement of eight hundred Iroquois. These were to 
march to attack Montreal, while the fleet and army 
which had been sent from England should at the same 
time assail Quebec. The city was in a state of intense 
excitement. The people were deeply interested in the 
enterprise, they saw themselves in fancy already masters 
of Canada, and eagerly awaited the news of the victory. 
They were doomed to disappointment. 

Nothing but judicious management had been spared 
to secure the success of the expedition. A fleet of fif- 
teen ships of war and forty transports, well manned and 
provided with all the necessary mnnitions, had been dis- 
patched from England with instructions to touch at Bos- 

19 



290 HISTORY. OF T.HF 

ton for the Massachusetts remforcements, then to sail 
at once to attack Quebec. But a month was wasted in 
Boston harbor in embarking the colonial troops and pro- 
viding supplies, which, after all, were totally inadequate 
to the wants of the expedition. After this long delay, the 
ships set sail for the St. Lawrence ; but hardly had they 
arrived in the mouth of the river when the fleet became 
enveloped in a dense fog. The American pilots advised 
that the ships should lie to with their heads to the south, 
but the admiral obstinately refused to permit this, and 
commanded them to keep on their course to the north- 
ward. It was not long before they found themselves lost 
among the rocks and islands of the northern shore. The 
men-of-war escaped from the tortuous channels, but 
eight transports were driven on the rocky shoals, and 
went down, burying eight hundred and, sixty men 
beneatli the waters. Dismayed at the fruits of his own 
obstinacy, the admiral hastily put about and returned to 
Spanish River Bay, where he held a council of war, and. 
finding that they had but ten weeks' provisions, deter- 
mined at once to abandon the expedition. On hearing 
of the misfortunes of the fleet, the land force returned 
disconsolate to the city, and the vision of the conquest of 
Canada, on which the colonists had expended so much 
hope and treasure, vanished in thin air from before their 
expectant eyes. 

The ill success of this expedition cast a deep gloom 
over the city, and did not dispose the people to second 
the governor's plans for their future course of action. He 
had warmly urged the Assembly that had convened in 
the spring of 1711 to grant a permanent revenue for the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 291 

support of the governmeut, pleading that such were the 
instructions of the queen, but this they persistently 
refused to do, and granted appropi'iations for a single 
year instead. The point was warmly contested by the 
governor and council, but neither party could be per- 
suaded to yield. 

The session of 1712 was equally stormy in its charac- 
ter. The Assembly repaired the fortifications and kept 
up the military force in compliance with the exigencies 
of the war, but steadily refused to grant anything more 
than an annual appropriation for the support of govern- 
ment. The state of affairs was gloomy enough. The 
Iroquois, who had hitherto been their fast friends, were 
growing distrustful ; rumors were afloat of a projected 
attack by sea, and the recent fiiilure of the Canadian 
expedition had weakened the faith of the people in their 
own resources. At this juncture, a new source of trouble 
arose. Ever since the introduction of slavery by the 
Dutch West India Company, the traffic in negroes had 
gone on continually increasing, till in numbers they 
began to rival the whites. In the midst of the general 
panic, the attention of the citizens was suddenly arrested 
by some mysterious movements on the part of the slaves. 
The danger to which they were hourly exposed from this 
host of oppressed and hitherto despised people, which 
had silently been growing up in their midst, now flashed 
upon them. Rumors circulated of an intended negro 
insurrection, some real or imaginary evidences of a con- 
certed plot were discovered, and the whole city was 
seized with alarm. How much the real danger was mag- 
nified by the fears of the inhabitants can never be 



292 HISTORY OF THE 

known ; certain it is that a riot occurred in which a 
house was burned and several white men were killed. 
A general arrest of negroes followed. Nineteen of the 
unfortunate wretches were tried and executed for their 
supposed complicity in the plot, and there the matter 
rested, to be revived again a few years after in a still 
more terrible aspect. 

In the following year, the peace of Utrecht terminated 
the war, and brought peace and rest to the harassed 
colonists. By this treaty, France ceded the territory of 
Hudson Bay, together with Newfoundland and Acadia, 
to England ; but, as the boundaries of these were not 
defined they became the source of fruitful dissensions, 
and were made the pretext for a continual frontier war- 
fare as long as the Canadas remained in the hands of the 
French. 

Meanwhile, the contest between the governor and the 
Assembly in respect to a permanent revenue had 
increased in bitterness. It was the fixed policy of the 
English government to weaken the power of the people 
and to strengthen that of the crown, and Hunter, though 
far more liberal and judicious than most of his predeces- 
sors, left no means untried to establish this end. What 
they had failed to accomplish by force, he effected by 
persuasion, and, having succeeded by the aid of his 
friend, Lewis Morris, in convening an Assembly favorable 
to liis interests in 1715, he prevailed on them to grant a 
revenue for three years, and thus to render the officials 
for that time independent of the people. Previously to 
this, he had established a Court of Chancery, assuming 
the office of Chancellor himself, and appointing as regis- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 293 

ters, Frederick Philipse and Rip Yan Dam, both mem- 
bers of his council. The Assembly protested loudly 
against this innovation, and the affair was referred to 
the Lords of Trade, who, ever obsequious to the interests 
of the crown, sustained the action of the governor, and 
decided that her majesty had an undoubted right to 
establish as many courts as she thought proper in her 
own dominions. Gratified at this victory, the governor 
made several important concessions to the people. He 
permitted the naturalization of the Dutch inhabitants, 
imposed taxes on British imports for the benefit of the 
province, and levied tonnage duties on foreign vessels. 
Lewis Morris was made chief justice in reward for his 
services, continuing, meanwhile, to retain his seat in 
the Assembly. In the following year, the city wit- 
nessed the arrival of two new-comers, destined to enact 
an important part in her future history. These were 
James Alexander, the father of Lord Stirling of Revo- 
lutionary memory, and William Smith, the father of 
the future chief-justice and historian of New York ; 
both eminent lawyers, who soon carved their way to 
positions of honor and profit in their adopted city. 

Despite Hunter's rigid observance of the instructions 
of his royal mistress, he was popular among his subjects, 
and seemingly disposed to farther their interests when 
they did not conflict with those of the English govern- 
ment. But his administration was drawing to a close. 
His health soon after failed him, and he was ordered by 
his physicians to seek a warmer climate. Surrendering 
the government into the hands of Peter Schuyler, the 
eldest member of the council, the office of lieutenant- 



294 HISTORY OF THE 

governor being at that time vacant, he set sail for 
Europe on the 31st of July, 1719, bearing with him 
the sincere regards of his subjects. He afterwards 
sought and obtained the government of Jamaica. 

Having thus followed Governor Hunter through his 
general career, in which the histories of the city and the 
province are too closely interwoven to be wholly 
divorced, let us take a retrospective view of municipal 
affairs during the seventeen years of his administration. 
He arrived at New York in the closing months of the 
term of office of Mayor Wilson. In 1710, Jacobus Van 
Cortlandt, son of the well known Oloffe Stevensen Van 
Cortlandt, and brother of the ex-mayor Stephanus Van 
Cortlandt, was appointed to the mayoralty. Mr. Van 
Cortlandt was a wealthy merchant, and a prominent 
member of the anti-Leislerian party, having already 
represented the city in Slough ter's Assembly of 1791 ; 
and was allied to several of the leading families of the 
city. In the year of his election to the Assembly, 
he married the daughter of the wealthy Frederick 
Philipse, with whom he received a large estate on the 
shores of the Hudson in the vicinity of Yonkers. This 
estate fell, at his death, into the hands of his son 
Frederick, who had married the daughter of Augustus 
Jay, the Huguenot ancestor of the celebrated John Jay 
of Revolutionary memory.* 

About the same time, a new market was established 

•Mr. Van Cortlandt died in 1739, leaving four children: Fredericlc, whom we 
have already mentioned ; Margaret, who married Abraham de Peyster, son of 
the ex-mavor; Ann, who married John Chambers ; and Mary, who married Petet 
Jay. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



295 




Augustus Jay, 
Born at La Roclielle, 16G5 ; died at New York. 1751. 

Fi'om the Portrait belonging to the Jay Family, at Bedford, Westchester County, N.Y. 



CITY OF NEW rORK. 297 

at the upper end of Broad street, between the City Hall 
and Exchange Place, and permission was given to the 
residents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds to suit 
their convenience under the direction of the clerk of the 
market. Country people were also permitted to sell 
meat at wholesale or i-etail as they pleased, subject to 
the same supervision ; and bakers were required to 
brand their loaves with their initials, under penalty 
of forfeiture of the bread, and to conform strictly to 
the legal assize. 

The laws relating to indentured apprentices were also 
amended. The term of apprenticeship was extended 
from four to seven years, at the expiration of which 
time, the master was bound to purchase for his appren- 
tice the freedom of the city. 

The winter of 1711 seems to mark the fii'st appear- 
ance of rowdyism in New York. A gang of men and 
boys fell into the habit of amusing themselves by taking 
midnight rambles, and throwing stones on their way at 
the windows of the houses ; and so annoying did this 
practice become, that the city authorities were finally 
obliged to offer a reward for the apprehension of the 
offenders. The evil was finally checked, and we find no 
repetition of it for several years to come. 

In the spring of the same year, it was resolved that a 
meeting of the Common Council should be held at the 
City Hall at 9 a.m. on the first Friday in every month, 
and the treasurer was ordered to purchase eighteen 
rush-bottom chairs, and an oval table, for their accom- 
modation. The municipal ordinances of the preceding 
year were rehearsed by their titles, and ordered to be 



298 HISTOET OF THE 

continued. The market-house at Wall street slip was 
ah'eady used as a public market-place for slaves — the 
first that had ever been instituted in the city. A record, 
dated the 1st of June of the same year, continues the 
widow of Andreas Donn, deceased, in the office of scaven- 
ger of Broad street for one year at a salary of eleven 
pounds sterling — a curious proof of the estimate of the 
sphere of woman by the city fathers of the olden time. 

In 1711, Caleb Heathcote, who had long mingled 
actively in the politics of the province as one of the 
leaders of the anti-Leislerian party, and had served 
as a member of the council of Fletcher in 1692, and 
again of Cornbury in 1702, was elected mayor. Mr 
Heathcote was a merchant, son of the mayor of Chester 
in England, who, having been supplanted by his brother 
in the affections of his betrothed, had come to America 
to forget his disappointment in the excitement of new 
scenes. He took up his residence in the family of his 
uncle, George Heathcote, one of the wealthiest mer- 
chants of the city, who had emigrated from England in 
1674, and soon became absorbed in the politics of the 
province. His brother, meanwhile, won a fortune in the 
mother-country, and became Sir Gilbert Heathcote, the 
founder and first president of the Bank of England, and 
Lord Mayor of London. Caleb learned to forget his 
perfidious love, and espoused Margaret Smith of Long 
Island, daughter of the ex-governor of Tangiers, 
familiarly styled " Tangier Smith" by his neighbors, 
the better to distinguish him from his scores of name- 
sakes. He retained the mayoralty for three years, after 
which he retired to his estate at Mamaroneck and built 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 299 




-%v?^ 



Portrait of Caleb Heathcote. 

there the well-known Heathcote Hall, where he died in 
1721, leaving two sons and four daughters to inherit his 
vast estates. 

Little worthy of note in respect to niuuicipal affairs 
occurred during his administration. In 1712, Broadway 
was levelled between Maiden Lane and the present 
Park, and speculators began to look forward to the 
time when these up-town lots would be of value. 
During the same year, the negro plot which we have 
already mentioned broke out, but was quicklj" sup- 
pressed by the citizens. 

The number of the city watch was soon after increased 



300 HISTORY OF THE 

from four to six. The paupers were now beginning to bo 
both numerous and troublesome, and it was proposed, 
instead of maintaining them by weekly pittances as had 
hitherto been done, to provide a house where they could 
be cared for at the public expense and be made to contri- 
bute somewhat towards their livelihood. This scheme, 
however, was not carried into effect until 1734, when a 
commodious house was erected on the commons, in the 
rear of the present City Hall, and well supplied with spin- 
ning-wheels, shoemakers' tools, and other implements of 
labor, to make it in some sort a self-sustaining institution. 
During the same year (1714) an application was made to 
the colonial government for permission to raise a yearly 
tax of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the city 
treasury ; but the request was refused. A census taken 
at this time showed the city to contain five thousand 
four hundred and eighty inhabitants. 

In 1716, John Johnston, a shipping merchant of the 
city was appointed mayor. Mr. Johnston was an active 
politician and a member of the governor's council during 
the last year of his mayoralty. He retained the office 
for five years. But few changes took place in the city 
during his administration. In the first year of his rule, 
the City Hall was graced by the first public clock ever 
put up in the city. This was a gift from Stephen 
De Lancey,* who, having been paid fifty pounds for his 
services as representative in the Assembly, invested the 
sum in a clock, which he presented to the Corporation 
for the use of the city. 

♦ Originally from Caen in Normandy 



CITT OF NEW TORE. 301 

In 1717, the Long Island ferry was leased for a term 
of five years commencing from the 5th of March, 1718, 
the landing-places remaining the same. A new ferry 
was also established, the landing-places on the New York 
shore being at Hanover Square, and at the Great Dock, 
near Broad street. This dock extended along Pearl 
street from Whitehall to Coenties Slip. The Broad street 
sewer flowed through it and emptied into the river. 

In 1718, Gilbert Livingston, Thomas Grant, Patrick 
Mac Knight and John Nicolls purchased a piece of 
ground in Wall street, near the City Hall, for the site of 
a church in behalf of the Presbyterians of the city ; 
and asked permission of the Corporation to hold reli- 
gious service in the hall until their church should be 
finished. The request was granted, on condition that 
they should in no wise interfere with the courts. The 
structure was erected the following year, and was the 
first Presbyterian church ever built in New York. 

In 1718, the first ropewalk was built along Broadway, 
between Barclay street and Park Place. These institu- 
tions afterwards became popular in New York and its 
vicinity, and formed the basis of a flourishing trade. 
About the same time, another boon was conferred upon 
this country by the introduction of the potato into 
America by a colony of Irish emigrants who had settled 
at Londonderry, in Maine. The culture was rapidly 
extended, and it was not long before the valuable 
esculent became naturalized among the farmers of 
Manhattan, and ranked among the choicest products of 
their soil. 

During the thirteen months that intervened between 



302 CITY OF NEW YORK. 

the departure of Hunter and the arrival of the new 
governor, the government of the province was adminis- 
tered by Peter Schuyler with great good sense and 
judgment. Schuyler was a veteran in public affairs ; he 
was popular among the Indians, to whom he had ever 
been a faithful friend, and his influence over them, 
joined with his counsels to the royal governors, had 
many times saved the infant settlements from destruc- 
tion ; and he now showed himself as well fitted to rule as 
he had been to counsel. He cemented the league anew 
between the English and the Iroquois, which had well- 
nigh been broken during the late warfare, and exerted 
himself to the utmost to promote the peace and pros- 
perity of the province. 

In 1719, Jacobus Van Cortlandt was again appointed 
mayor. He held the office for but one year — long 
enough, however, to witness the installation of the new 
governor. On the 17th of September, 1720, William 
Burnet, the newly-appointed governor of New York 
and New Jersey, arrived at New York. Peter Schuyler 
immediataly resigned the direction of affairs, a new 
council was chosen, and Governor Burnet assumed the 
charge of the welfare of the province and city. 



CHAPTER X. 



A&irs of the City under ■William Burnet — Suppression of the Circuitoos Traffic — The 
Montgomerie Charter — New Yorli in the Middle of the Eighteenth Century. 

William Burnet, the new governor, was the son of the 
celebrated Bishop Burnet and had served in England as 
comptroller of the customs previously to receiving this 
new appointment. He was a man of fine talents, 
polished manners, and comprehensive intellect, less 
avaricious than colonial governors were wont to be, and 
frank and outspoken almost to excess. Soon after his 
arrival, he married Miss Van Home, the daughter of a 
leading merchant of the city, and thus identified his 
interests with those of his subjects. By the advice of 
Hunter, he forbore to dissolve the pliant Assembly which 
had been convened through the efforts of Morris, and the 
same body continued in existence for a period of eleven 
years. As a proof of their appreciation of this favor, the 
Assembly at once voted the governor a five years' 
revenue. 

On his arrival in the province, Burnet at once attached 
himself to Morris, who continued his fast friend during 



304 



HISTORY OF THE 




Portrait of Cadwallader Coldeii. 



his administration. He also formed a friendship with 
James Alexander, whom we have already mentioned, and 
Cadwallader Golden, the sui-veyor-general and master in 
chancery of the province, who had settled in the city two 
years before, and who was destined to exert an impor- 
tant influence on its future history. Cadwallader Colden 
was a Scotch physician of fine talents and thorough edu- 
cation, who settled at Pliiladelphia soon after his gradu- 
ation from the University of Edinburgh, and commenced 
the practice of medicine. He afterwards went to 
Europe, where he mari'ied and resided for a short time, 
then returned in 1716 to his practice in Philadelphia 
In 1718, he removed to New York, where he obtained 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 305 

an official appointment from his friend and countryman. 
Governor Hunter, and took up his permanent abode. 

These three men, with Schuyler, Smith and Living- 
ston, were now the leading spirits of the province. The 
council consisted of Peter Schuyler, Abraham de Peyster, 
Robert Walters, Gerardus Beekman, Rip Van Dam, 
Caleb Heathcote, John Barbarie, Frederick Philipse, 
John Johnston, Francis Harrison, Mr. Byerly and Mr. 
Clarke. 

To give a clear idea of the events which signalized the 
administration of Burnet, we must glance briefly at the 
general position of affairs in the province. It was the fixed 
policy of the French government to gain control of the 
Indian trade, both along the northern frontier and in the 
regions of the Far West. This not only secured to them 
a lucrative traffic, but furthered their ultimate design of 
attaching the Indians to themselves, and, with their aid, 
rendering themselves masters of the province. For this 
end, Jesuit missionaries had long been mingling with the 
wandering tribes, seeking to secure them through con- 
version to the interests of France. Foi'saking the com- 
forts of civilized life, the devoted and adventurous 
disciples of Loyola penetrated the unknown regions of 
the West, and, skillfully ingratiating themselves with the 
sons of the forest, established missions where the foot of 
white man had never before trod, and laid open the 
inmost recesses of the wilderness to the march of civiliz- 
ation. In 1675, La Salle had founded Fort Frontenac 
at the entrance of the Ontario ; then, with Tonti and 
Hennepin, had pushed his explorations to the distant 
regions of the Mississippi. The missionaries and traders 
20 



306 HISTORTOFTHE 

followed ill the path tlius opened to them by Jesuitical 
enterprise, and the Indian territory was soon everywhere 
traversed by the indefatigable emissaries of the French 
government. In the beginning of Burnet's administra- 
tion, the Chevalier de Joncaire, himself a Jesuit and a 
man of noble birth and fine talents, who, having been 
made captive by the Senecas, had won their favor and 
been adopted into their tribe,' established a permanent 
trading-post at Fort Frontenac, from wdiich he designed 
to command the region of the Mississippi through the 
medium of the western traders. 

As the goods sold by the French traders were mostly 
of English manufacture, and purchased in the city of 
New York, the merchants were well satisfied with an 
arrangement which enabled them to dispose of large 
quantities of goods with very little risk or trouble to 
themselves. But Burnet, who had studied the position 
of affairs attentively before his departure from England, 
comprehended the ultimate result of this dangerous 
policy, and saw clearly that the safety of the province 
depended on estabhshing a line of English trading-posts 
along the northern frontier, and thus counteracting the 
designs of the French government. Through the influ- 
ence of Lewis Morris, he prevailed upon the first Assem- 
bly that convened after his arrival to put an end to the 
circuitous traffic by passing a bill prohibiting all sales of 
goods to the French, under penalty of the forfeiture of 
the articles, with an additional fine of one hundred 
pounds. This bill was warmly opposed by the mer- 
chants interested in the traffic, who. thinking only of the 
present, viewed it as a death-blow to their lucrative 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 307 

trade. They complained loudly of the governor's con- 
duct to the Board of Trade, and it was only through 
the eai-nest efforts of Cadwallader Golden, who warmly 
espoused the new policy, that this important measure 
was finally sustained. 

In 1722, Governor Burnet commenced the erection of 
a trading-post at Oswego, and from this may be dated 
the foundation of that profitable fur traffic which formed 
the basis of so many colossal fortunes. This opening of 
a new path in commerce wrought a revolution in the 
aims and lives of the young men of the city. These 
youths, instead of remaining, as formerly, behind their 
fathers' counters or entering the beaten track of the 
West India trade, now provided themselves with a stock 
of guns and blankets, and set out with a trusty servant 
ui a bark canoe to explore the pathless wilderness. 
Here they roamed for months in the primeval forests, 
forced at every step to turn aside to avoid some deadly 
reptile or fierce beast of prey, or to guard against the 
wiles of an insidious foe, ever on the alert to entrap 
them in some snare, and to purchase their goods at the 
expense of their lives. Forced to depend for their sub- 
sistence on the quickness of their eye and the sureness 
of their aim, to journey by day through thicket and 
marsh, over cataract and rapid, to sleep at night with no 
other canopy than the stars and sky, and to be constantly 
on their guard against the unseen danger which was 
lurking everywhere about them, this forest education 
called forth all their resources of courage and sagacity, 
and they came from the trial with muscles of iron, nerves 
of steel, and a hand and eye that never flinched before 



308 HISTORY OF THE 

the most deadly peril. No fiction of romance can sur- 
pass the adventurous career of these daring travellers 
who thus pursued the golden fleece in the wilds of 
America ; and those who came forth from this school of 
danger were well fitted to play their part in the 
approaching tragedies of the French and Indian war and 
the drama of the coming Revolution. 

In the same year of the establishment of the Oswego 
trading-post, a congress composed of the governors of 
New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, with deputies from 
the other colonies, assembled at Albany to consult toge- 
ther in respect to the war. This congress framed a me- 
morial to the English government, urging the erection of 
the projected line of trading-posts as the only means of 
thwarting the policy of the French and securing the 
safety of the English provinces. No attention was paid 
to their request, and the scheme that would have pro- 
tected the colony from the future ravages of the French 
and Indians was at length reluctantly abandoned by the 
disappointed governor. 

Meanwhile, the usual bickerings had continued to 
exist between the governor and the Assembly. This 
body, so friendly to him on his arrival, had in part been 
alienated by his recent policy. The merchants engaged 
in the circuitous trade spared no pains to assail him in 
public and private, and a powerful opposition was thus 
excited against him. A dispute in which he became 
involved in 1724 with Stephen De Lancey, a wealthy 
merchant and a patron of the French Huguenot church 
in Pine street, increased the difficulty. A portion of the 
congregation, headed by Mr. De Lancey, becoming dis- 



CITY OF NEW YOKK. 309 

satisfied with the Rev. Louis Rou, the pastor of the 
church, dismissed him on the charge that he had flagged 
in his duty, and had introduced innovations into the 
church discipHne. M. Rou and his friends appealed from 
this decision to the governor and council, who sustained 
them in opposition to the party of l)e Lancey, and 
decided that the malcontents had no right to dismiss 
their minister. The affair caused great excitement; 
indignant memorials were published on both sides, and 
the; opposition party which had been raised against the 
the governor by the suppression of the French trade, 
received now accessions from day to day. Soon after, 
De Lancey was elected as member of the Assembly, 
when Burnet refused to administer the oaths to him, 
alleging that he was not a subject of the crown. De 
Lancey, who, though born in France, had left it before 
the revocation of the edict of Nantes, insisted that he 
had received a patent of denization in England under 
the hand and seal of James IL, and the Assembly sus- 
tained his claims against the governor. 

The five years' revenue granted on the arrival of 
Burnet having expired, the Assembly refused to renew 
it for a longer term than three years. This was the 
same Assembly that had been elected under the auspices 
of Hunter, but its character and disposition had widely 
changed. Several of the best friends of the governor 
had died, and their places had been filled by new 
members ; the suppression of the circuitous trade had 
alienated many more, and the once pliant Assembly had 
grown harsh and unyielding. Burnet at length dissolved 
the body; but the new Assembly that convened in 1727 



310 HISTORY OF THE 

proved still more refractory. This was made up mostly 
of the friends of the French trade, men whose interests 
were directly affected by its suppression, and who were 
chiefly anxious to procure a repeal of the obnoxious act 
and thus to thwart the policy of Burnet. The continu- 
ance of the Court of Chancery, instituted by Hunter, also 
gave rise to general dissatisfaction, which was greatly 
increased by his assumption of the chancellorship. After 
a short session, he dissolved them as incorrigible. But 
their efforts did not stop here ; his commission expiring 
soon after, on the death of George I., they represented 
to the ministry that the interests of the province 
demanded a new governor. Their arguments were lis- 
tened to ; Burnet was transferred against his wishes to 
the government of Massachusetts, and John Montgomerie 
was appointed his successor. In 1729, the obnoxious act 
n^as repealed, the circuitous trade again established, and 
the ulterior designs of the French government thus aided 
unwittingly by the merchants of New York. 

Burnet was a man of fine talents, but his was the mis- 
fortune of not being understood. Had he been ably 
seconded in the schemes which he sought to execute, he 
would have saved the province from the horrors of future 
warfare and insured its peace and prosperity. Of a dif- 
ferent stamp from his rapacious predecessors, he spared 
neither time nor money in the fulfillment of his projects 
for the public good. The trading-post at Oswego was 
built in part from his private fortune — a debt which was 
never repaid by the English government — and he left 
the province poorer than he had entered it. He was of 
literary tastes, polished manners and a genial tempera- 



CITY OF NEW YORK 311 

ruent, and, but for the unhappy dissensions engendered 
by his system of poKcy, would have been one of the 
most popular of the colonial governors. Under his 
auspices, the era of journalism was first commenced in 
the city by the New York Gazette, published in 1725 by 
WiUiam Bradford, the government printer. This was a 
half-sheet paper, and was printed once a week. It was 
increased to four pages during the following year. 

We will now glance at the progress of the city dur- 
ing the past eight years. The changes in this time had 
neither been marked nor numerous. The city had 
increased iu population to nearly eight thousand inhabit- 
ants, and the vacant lots were gradually becoming filled 
up and peopled. In the first year of Burnet's adminis- 
tration, Robert Walters, a Holland merchant, who had 
long filled a prominent position in the city, was chosen 
mayor. He was also a member of the council both 
of Burnet and Montgomerie ; was a devoted adherent 
of the Leislerian party, and a popular man among the 
democracy. He retained the office of mayor for five 
years. Little worthy of note occurred during his admin- 
istration, the principal event of which was the publica- 
tion of Bradford's newspaper in 1725, of which we have 
already spoken. Various municipal ordinances concern- 
ing the restriction of negroes, etc. were enacted, but 
they were but modifications of those whicli we have 
already noticed. 

In 1725, Johannes Jansen, a merchant of Holland 
origin, was appointed mayor. He retained the office for 
but one year, when he was succeeded by Robert Lurting, 
a shipping merchant, who had long been actively 



312 HISTORY OF THE 

engaged in politics, and had acted as alderman for sev- 
eral yeai-s. He retained the office until his death in 1735. 
On the 15th of April, 1728, John Montgomerie 
arrived as governor and chancellor of New York and 
New Jersey. Montgomerie had been groom of the bed- 
chamber to the Prince of Wales, now George II. 
Though bred a soldier, he was of a yielding and indolent 
temperament, and his antecedents had not certainly been 
calculated to fit him for the important command which 
was now intrusted to him. He came charged to carry 
out the policy of the late governors, and to sustain the 
Court of Chancery ; but he shrank from the task, and 
only assumed the chancellorship when speciall}' com- 
manded ; and then under protest and avowedly as a mat- 
ter of form. The citizens gave him a cordial welcome. 
On the day after his arrival, the mayor and corporation 
presented him the freedom of the city in a gold box ; and 
at their first session, the Assembly granted him the five 
years' revenue which they had so persistently refused to 
the late governor. Affairs glided on smoothly enough 
during his administration, the principal event in it being 
the grant of an amended city charter in 1730. By this 
charter, the limits of the city were made to comprehend 
four hundred feet below low- water mark on the Hudson 
River from Minetta Brook or Bestavers Killitje south- 
ward to the fort, thence the same number of feet 
beyond low-water mark round the fort and along the 
East River as far as the north side of Corlear's Hook, the 
west side of Pearl street being reserved for the use of 
the fort. The sole power of establishing ferries about 
the island, with all the profits accruing therefrom, wa.« 



CITY OF NEW VOEK. 313 

granted to the corporation, the rates of ferriage to be 
fixed by the governor and council or by an act of the 
Assembly. A grant and confirmation was also given 
them of the lands held by them on Long Island, including 
the ferry, ferry-house and appurtenances. The market- 
houses, docks, slips and wharves with all the profits 
arising from them were granted to the city. The 
appointment of subordinate officers was given to the 
mayor, with the advice and consent of the common 
council. Provision was made for a court of common 
pleas to be held on every Tuesday in the year by the 
mayor or his deputy, with two or more aldermen, power 
being given them to adjourn the same for a period not 
exceeding twenty-eight days. Authority was given to 
the mayor or recorder, with a majority of the aldermen 
and assistants, to meet and make or repeal such by-laws 
and ordinances as they might deem fit — such ordinances 
to continue in force a twelvemonth unless repealed. 
Provision was made for a new division of the city into 
seven wards, the limits to be hereafter determined by 
the common council, each ward to choose the usual num- 
ber of officers annually, with such a number of constables 
as the common council might direct, and to be the sole 
judge of the election and qualifications of its own offi- 
cers. The mayor, recorder and aldermen were consti- 
tuted justices of the peace for the city and county of 
New York, with power to hear and determine all pleas 
of forty shillings and under, and to nominate and 
appoint proper officers for that court. The mayoi-, 
recorder and three or more of the aldermen were 
invested with power to administer oaths to freemen and 



314 HISTORY OF THE 

officers of the city, and to make as many freemen as 
they should see fit ; also to hold general quarter sessions 
for the city and county, the mayor, recorder and eldest 
alderman constituting the quorum. Power was given to 
the corporation to erect necessary public buildings and 
to appoint the proper officers ; also, to sue for their law- 
ful dues and demands in the name of their chamberlain. 
The petition of the common council that the offices of 
mayor, recorder, sheriff, coroner and town-clerk might 
henceforth be elective was refused by the governor after 
some consideration, and these officials continued as here- 
tofore to be appointed by the governor and council. 
The mayor was appointed clerk of the market for the 
time being. The jurisdiction of the city was fixed to 
begin at King's Bridge, thence to run down by the main- 
land to the point within the shortest distance from Long 
Island, including Great and Little Barn Island ; thence, 
crossing to low-water mark on the Long Island shore, to 
extend down by the same mark to Red Hook ; thence to 
run on a straight line to the lower end of the southern- 
most Oyster Island ; thence to extend northerly along 
the west side of the three Oyster Islands up the Hudson 
to Spiking Devil or Spuyten Devil Ci-eek, and thence 
along low-water mark to King's Bridge, the place of 
beginning. The grant of all the waste and unappro- 
priated lands of the island, which had been made to the 
city by the Dongan charter of 1686, was again con- 
firmed by the new charter. The wharves along the 
shores were required to be made forty feet broad, both 
for the greater convenience of trade, and to fit them for 
the erection of batteries, the go\'ernment reserving the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 315 

right of planting these in case of necessity. The quit- 
rent was fixed at ten shillings over and above the for- 
mer quit-rents. Such was the substance of the con- 
ditions of the Montgomerie charter.* 

In the first year of Montgomerie's administration, a 
Jewish cemetery was first established in the city. This 
was bounded by Chatham, Oliver, Henry and Catherine 
streets, and was given in 1729 by N'oc Willey of London 
to his three sons, merchants in New York, to be held as 
a burial-place for the Jewish nation forever. But the eye 
of the old Hebrew could not pierce into futui'ity ; the 
trust was violated many years ago, and warehouses now 
cover the site once destined as a final resting-place for 
the Jewish Rabbis. Several years previously, a Jewish 
synagogue had been erected in Mill street. 

The city was gradually extending its limits, and the 
powder-house which had been built a*few years before on 
the Commons began to be considered as an unsafe place 
of deposit for the powder which was stored there. A 
new magazine was accordingly determined on, and after 
some deliberation, the corporation selected a pretty httle 
island in the Fresh Water Pond as the most available 
location, and erected a storehouse there in 1728 for tlie 
safe keeping of the explosive material. 

The Garden street church having become full to over- 
flowing, a portion of the congregation determined to 
colonize, and, in 1726, purchased a lot of ground on the 
corner of Nassau and Liberty, then Crown street, and 
commenced the erection of the Middle Dutch church 

* This was based on the Dongan Charter. 



310 



HIST II Y OF THE 



But ere long the undertaking came to a full stop for 
want of funds, and, in 1729, the congregation applied to 
the governor for a license to make a collection in aid of 
its completion. This was granted ; the money was soon 
raised, and the church was finished and opened in the 
course of the same year. It was at first without a 
gallery: the pulpit was on the east side, and two doors 
opened on the west. For the first thirty years, the ser- 
vices were performed exclusively in the Dutch language, 
after which the English service Avas used half the time, 
much to the dissatisfaction of the sires of the congre- 
gation. In 1776, the pews were torn out and used for 
fuel, while the church became the prison-house of three 
thousand Americans. When no longer desired for this 
purpose, it was converted into a riding-school for the 
British cavalry, and the walls which had so often 
reechoed the fervent prayers of the pious dominies now 
rang with the caracoUing of steeds and the jests of the 
soldiery. Adjoining it, in Liberty street, stood the old 
sugar-house, built in 1689 in the days of Leisler, and also 




Old Sugar Hous^e in Litjeit* fltreet, the Puson House of the Rcvoludon. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



317 




onouraoLe 



RIP VAN DAM. E. 

mSWMrJ'Muu lh//m/iM (^m^n/frf(/r fiOmTEf NEW. 



Middle Dutch Church iu Olden Time. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 319 

transformed into a prison for the patriots. After the close 
of the war, both buildings returned to their original use. 
The sugar-house was levelled in 1840 before the march 
of modern improvements ; the church long continued 
the general post-ofHce of the city of New York. 

Soon after the erection of the Middle Dutch church, it 
was proposed to extend the city on the west side by rescu- 
ing Greenwich and Wasliington streets from the waters ; 
and they were ordered to be surveyed and laid out above 
the Battery along the lines of high and low-water mark ; 
the high-water mark to be the centre of one street, and 
the low-water mark, the centre of the other. It was 
also determined to establish three new slips, one opposite 
Morris street, another opposite Exchange Place, and a 
third opposite Rector street. The streets, however, 
were not built upon until several years after. A line of 
stages was established between New York and Phila- 
delphia, to run once a fortnight during the winter months, 
and proposals were issued for a foot post to Albanj'. 

In 1729, a library of 1,622 volumes, which had been 
bequeathed by the Rev. John Milhngton, Rector of New 
ington, England, to the Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was presented by them to 
the city for a public library. To these was added a col- 
lection presented in 1700 by the Rev. John Sharp, chap- 
tain Oi' Lord Bellamont, and the whole was opened to 
the public under the supervision of the latter gentleman 
as " the Corporation Librar3^" But the librarian died 
soon after, and the books were neglected and almost for- 
gotten until 1754, when a number of public-spirited 
citizens organized themselves into a body and founded 



320 HISTORY OF THE 

the Society Libraiy, obtaining permission from the Com- 
mon Council to add the Corporation Library to their col- 
lection and to deposit their bool^s in the City Hall. Here 
the library continued to increase and prosj^er. In 1772, 
a charter was granted it by George III. under the name 
of the New York Society Library, and under the new 
impetus given it by this incorporation, it flourished till 
all thoughts of literary enterprise were banished by the 
general stagnation of the Revolution. The city fell into 
the hands of the British and the library into the hands 
of the British soldiery ; and, in the scenes of vandalism 
which followed, the choice and valuable collection which 
had been gathered with so much care, was scattered, 
nuitilated and almost totally destroyed. For fourteen 
years, the library was neglected by its founders in the 
excitement of the struggle for liberty ; then, in 1783, 
when peace was finally declared, the scattered elements 
of the society reunited, and, reviving their charter, once 
more commenced the collection of books. In 1793, a 
library building was erected in Nassau street, which was 
at that time considered one of the architectural lions of 
the city. But the collection soon outgrew its new quar- 
ters, and, removing temporarily into the Mechanics' 
Society building in Chambers street, continued there 
until the completion of the new library on the corner of 
Broadway and Leonard streets in 1840. Hardly was it 
established here when the upward rush of business forced 
it again to vacate this and to seek a new resting-place in 
the upper part of the town. For a time, it established 
itself in the Bible House in Astor Place, then removed, 
in 1857, to its new edifice in L^niversity Place between 



CITY OF NEW TORE. 321 

Twelfth and Thirteenth street, which seems spacious 
enough for all present exigencies. Such was the rise 
and progress of the first pubhc library of New York. 

But we must return from our jiresent surroundings to 
the daj-s of olden time. At this period, markets were 
notal^le institutions. They were established at the foot 
of almost every street along the East River. Several 
market-places were to be found in the heart of the city, 
the upper end of Broad street was a public stand for 
country wagons, and a market occupied the centre of 
Broadway, opposite Liberty street. In 1732, another 
market-house was erected at the foot of Fulton street ori 
the North River side for the accommodation of country- 
men from Jersey. 

Changes were also wrought in the lower part of the 
city. We have before noticed the erection of a battery 
on the rocks near Whitehall slip. This name originated 
in a large house on the corner of Whitehall and State 
streets, erected by Petrus Stuyvesant during his admin- 
istration, and known to the people of that day as "the 
Stuyvesant Huys." It afterwards fell into the hands of 
Governor Dongan, who christened it "the White Hall." 
This subsequently became the Custom House of the city. 
Adjoining this was the store in which Jacob Leisler had 
transacted business during his lifetime, and from which 
that part of Whitehall between State and Pearl streets 
had at one time been known as Leisler street. Opj)o- 
site Whitehall street, in the block bounded by Whitehall, 
Pearl, Moore and State streets, was an open space known 
as " the Strand," and used as a market-place for coun- 
try-wagons. In 1732, this space, having grown too val- 



322 HISTOKY OF THE 

uable to be used for such a jDuq^ose, was divided into 
seven lots and sold at auction at prices ranging from one 
hundred and fifty-six to two hundred and seventy-nine 
pounds sterling. In the same year, the vacant space in 
front of the fort which had hitherto been used for a 
market-place, parade-ground, and similar purposes, was 
leased to Frederick Philipse, John Chambers, and John 
Roosevelt, for ten years, at a yearly rent of a pepper- 
corn, to be used as a bowling-green. Soon after, Pearl 
street, the ancient cow-path, which led from the settle- 
ment to the common pasture, and along the line of 
which houses had sprung up without regard to mathe- 
matical squares and angles, was regulated, so far as 
regulation was possible, and established as a public 
road. 

"The Commons," of which we have spoken before, 
consisted originally of nearly a square piece of ground, 
bounded on the east and west by Nassau street and 
Broadway, and on the north and south by Chambers and 
Ann streets. Through this passed the post-road, the 
present Chatham street, cutting off a triangle on the east 
side, a part of which was used for public amusements 
and was known as " the Vineyard." The present Park 
was a level plain, so level indeed that it came to be 
known as " the Ylackte," or " Flat ;" a name which still 
lives in the memory of our oldest inhabitants. For 
many years, this was the place of public execution, the 
gallows standing near the present Hall of Records. 

North of this lay the Fresh Water Pond, with its 
neighboring district of the Collect or Kalch-Hook. This 
name, which finally came to be applied to the pond 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 323 

itself, was originally given by the Dutch settlers to a 
point of land on the shores of the pond of about forty- 
eight acres in extent, the site of an old Indian village. 
The Fresh "Water Pond was one of those traditional 
ponds which are found in every village, reputed to have 
no bottom — a reputation which it failed to sustain against 
the researches of modern times. The pond was, indeed, 
very deep ; deep enough, in fact, to have floated the 
largest ships in the navy. Its waters were filled with 
roach and sunfish, and to preserve these, the city authori- 
ties passed an ordinance in 1734, forbidding any person to 
fish in it with nets, or in any other way than anghng. 
But the beautiful pond has passed away, and the spot 
where its sparkling waters once played is now filled by 
the " Halls of Justice " with their gloomy prison cells. 

Below the Commons, on the east side of the city, was 
"the Swamp," in the vicinity of Ferry street, a low 
gi-ound, covered with tangled briers. This tract was 
sold in 1734 for two hundred pounds to Jacobus Roose- 
velt, who laid out the ground into fifty lots and established 
several tanneries on it. This was indicative of its future 
destiny, for it has ever since remained the seat of the 
leather business of New York. 

South of this region lay two estates known as the " Shoe- 
" makers' Land," and " VanderclifF's orchard," the first of 
which we have already described. The VanderclifF 
farm, which was bounded on the east and west by the East 
River and the Shoemakers' Land, and on the north and 
south by Beekman street and Maiden Lane, was origin- 
ally owned by Hendrick Rycker, who sold it in 1680 to 
Dirck Yandercliff. The new proprietor continued to 



324 HISTORY OF THE 

reside on it until his death, after which it was divided 
into lots, which were sold at prices ranging from twenty 
to thirty pounds each. This tract became classic ground 
in the days of the Revolution, under the more euphoni- 
ous name of Golden Hill. Cliff street still preserves a 
part of the ancient title. 

Along the Bowery road lay Steenwyck's orchard, 
Heerman's orchard, and the well-known Stuyvesant 
" bouwerie," whence it derived its name. Near the 
latter, in the neighborhood of the present Grammei'cy 
Park, was " Crummashie Hill." Above this, lay the 
Zant-berg hills, with Minetta brook, winding its way 
through the marshy valley on the other side to its outlet 
in the North River ; and still further to the north, in 
the vicinity of Thirty-sixth street and Fifth Avenue, 
was the Incleuberg, or Beacon Hill, the Murray Hill of 
modern times, which commanded a view of the whole 
island. 

On the lands of Nicholas Bayard, in the vicinity of 
Grand and Centre streets rose Bayard's Mount, after- 
wards known as Mount Pleasant and Bunker's Hill. 
From this, the Crown Point road stretched along the line 
of Grand street to Crown Point or Corlear's Hook, once 
the farm of Jacobus Van Corlaer, passing over Jones' 
Hill, at the junction of Grand and Division streets. Near 
the Collect rose the Potters' Hill, at tlie foot of which 
flowed the Ould Kill, conveying the waters of the pond 
through the marshy Wolfert's Valley, to their outlet in 
the East River. This valley derived its name from its orig- 
inal proprietor, Jacob Wolfertsen Van Couwenhoven. 
A bridge was thrown across the etream, near the junction 



CITY OF N E fl' Y R K 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 327 

of Roosevelt and Chatham streets, for the accommoda- 
tion of travellers. This creek, with the Fresh Water 
Pond and the great Lispenard Meadows at the north- 
west, formed a chain of waters quite across the island. 

On the west side of Broadway above Trinity Church 
was the King's Arms Tavern, the principal inn of the 
city, and the head-quarters of the anti-Leislerian party. 
Its grounds were extensive, running down to the river 
and stretching a considerable distance along Broadway. 
North of this were the estates of Van Cortlandt and Dey, 
and above these the old King's Farm, which had originally 
been the property of the Dutch West India Company, 
then, falling, in 1664, into the hands of the English 
captors, had been increased by the purchase of the 
estate of Aneke Jans, and had afterwards been presented 
to Trinity Church by Queen Anne. In 1720, the 
southern part of this farm was surveyed and laid out 
into streets which were named in honor of the various 
church dignitaries. At this time, Broadway extended 
no further than its junction with Chatham street. 

In 1731, the city was divided into seven wards in con- 
formity with the provisions of the Montgomerie charter. 
In the same year, the first steps were taken towards 
oro^anizing a Fire Department on a permanent basis. 
Hitherto, the means for extinguishing fires had been of 
the most primitive kind — a few leather buckets, a cou- 
ple of fire-hooks and poles, and seven or eight ladders 
constituting the sum total. In the early part of the 
eighteenth century, fire engines were successfully intro- 
duced into England, and in 1731, the corporation of 
New York resolved to import two for the use of the city. 



328 CITT OF NEW YORK. 

This was accordingly done, and a room in the City Hall 
was fitted up for their reception. In 1736, an engine- 
house was built in Broad street, and a contract made 
with Jacobus Turk to keep the engines clean and in 
good order for 1>he sum of ten pounds per annum. In 
1737, a Fire Department was organized and twenty-five 
members enrolled, who, in consideration of their ser- 
vices, were excused from performing military duty or 
from serving as constables, jurors, or surveyors of high- 
ways. 

On the 1st of July, 1731, Governor Montgomerie died, 
after a peaceful administration of two years, and was 
succeeded by Rip Van Dam, the eldest member of the 
council. Mr. Van Dam was of Holland origin, his father 
having settled in the city in the days of Stuyvesant. He 
was engaged in commerce, like most of the leading men 
of the time, and carried on an extensive foreign trade ; 
and had been for several years a member of the council 
when called to the .head of affairs by the sudden death 
of the governor. Little occurred worthy of note during 
the thirteen months of his administration. At the end 
of that time. Colonel William Cosby arrived as his suc- 
cessor. 



CHAPTER XI. 

1732—1711. 
The Zenger Trial. 

The citizens gained as little by the change in the gov- 
ernment as did the frogs in the fable by parting with 
King Log. Unlike the yielding and good-natured Mont- 
gomerie, Cosby was testy, despotic, and rapacious withal. 
A short time previously, when governor of Minorca, he 
had been detected in a fraudulent transaction, the odium 
of which had caused his recall. But he had served the 
interests of the colonists while in England by opposing 
an obnoxious sugar bill proposed by the Board of Trade 
— an act which disposed them to receive him as a friend. 
Under the influence of this feeling, the Assembly that 
was in session at his arrival, cheerfully granted him a 
revenue for sis years, and presented him with seven 
hundred and fifty pounds as a token of gratitude for his 
opposition to the obnoxious bill. But the smallness of 
the sum incensed the governor. " Why did they not 
add the shillings and pence ?" asked he tauntingly of 
Morris, who was one of the council. 

The first act of Cosby after his arrival in the province 



330 HISTORY OF THE 

was to produce a royal order, prescribing an equal 
division of the salary, emoluments and perquisites of the 
office since the time of his appointment, between himself 
and Rip Van Dam. Van Dam declared his willingness 
to comply with the order, and to divide the salary he 
had received, which was a little less than two thousand 
pounds ; but only on condition that Cosby should also 
divide the six thousand pounds which he had received as 
perquisites before reaching the province. Indignant at 
the evident partiality to English favorites, the mass of 
the people supported him in this posifion. It was obvi- 
ous that if tlie English government could take a fairly 
earned salary from the hands of an official and share it 
with one who had done nothing to deserve it, there was 
very little security for the rights of colonial subjects. 
The citizens were growing weary of the rapacity of 
English adventurers ; they saw that the interests of the 
colonies were wholly disregarded by the home govern- 
ment, and that they were chiefly valued as a means 
whereby to repair the fortunes of spendthrift noblemen; 
and, incensed beyond measure at this last act of tyranny, 
they took a bold stand which shadowed forth their com- 
ing resistance. 

The council was at this time composed of Messrs. 
Clark, Harrison, Horsmanden, Kennedy, Colden, Lane, 
De Lancey, Cortlandt, Philipse and Livingston. Robert 
Morris was chief justice of the Supreme Court, and 
James De Lancey and Adolphus Philipse second and 
third judges. James De Lancey was the son of the 
Huguenot, Stephen De Lancey, whom we have already 
seen figuring prominently in public affairs. He had 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 331 

been appointed by Governor Montgomerie to fill the 
place in the council rendered vacant by the death of 
John Barbaric, and it vpas not long before he was 
numbered among the leading men of the province. 
Adolphus Philipse was the son of Frederick Philipse of 
Leislerian notoriety. Both were attached to the anti- 
Leislerian or conservative faction, in opposition to 
Morris, who was a warm adherent of the democratic 
party. 

To recover the half of the salary which he claimed. 
Cosby instituted proceedings against Yan Dam before 
the judges of the Supreme Court as barons of the 
Exchequer ; a position in which they were entitled to 
act by their commission. As Cosby himself was chan- 
cellor ex officio, and De Lancey and Philipse were known 
as his intimate friends, William Smith and James Alex- 
ander, who acted as Yan Dam's counsel, excepted to the 
jurisdiction of the court in the case, and endeavored to 
institute a suit at common law. Their plea was sup- 
ported by Chief Justice Morris, but was overruled by 
De Lancey and Philipse, and these two constituting a 
majority, the cause of Van Dam was declared lost, and 
he was ordered to pay half of his salary to the gover- 
nor. Morris published his opinion, upon which Cosby 
removed him from his office, and appointed De Lancey 
chief justice in his stead, without asking the advice 
of the council. Van Dam and several others were also 
suspended, and Cosby gained an apparent triumph. 

This high-handed proceeding aroused the indignation 
of the people, and murmurs of discontent pervaded the 
city. "I have great interest in England," said the 



332 HISTORY OF THE 

goveinior, carelessly, when some of these reached his 
ears. Yet this did not prevent him from sending a 
justification of his conduct to the Board of Trade, 
urging the necessity of arbitrary measures in order to 
preserve the king's prerogative, and accusing the people 
of being tainted with "Boston principles." 

The people, though defeated, were not disposed to be 
silent. The contemptible meanness of the whole affair 
had excited their merriment as well as their indignation, 
and squibs, lampoons and satirical ballads hailed without 
mercy upon the aristocratic party. In their train fol- 
lowed the first newspaper controversy ever carried on in 
New York. We have already mentioned the publica- 
tion of the New York Gazette, by William Bradford, the 
government printer. This, deriving its support from 
the government, naturally espoused the cause of Cosby. 
While the suit against Yan Dam was in progress, John 
Peter Zenger, a printer by trade, and collector of the 
city taxes, set up a new paper called the New York 
Weekly Journal* which at once became the vehicle of the 
opposition. The columns of the new journal were filled 
from week to week with able and caustic articles, 
satirizing the proceedings of the Court of Exchequer, 
and assailing the acts of the government party. No one 
was spared ; the governor, council and Assembly were 
alike made to feel the sharp lash of the critic ; the 

* This was tlie second newspaper published in New York, and was first issued on 
the 5th of November, ITSS. Zenger was originally a Palatine orphan, and was 
apprenticed to Bradford at ten years of age. He published the Jor.rnal until his 
death in 1746, after which it was continued by his widow, Catherine Zenger, till 
December, 1748, when she resigned the publication to her son, John Zenger, It 
was discontinued in 1752, after an existence of nineteen years. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 333 

permanent revenue, the Court of Chancery, the system 
of taxation, and all the other colonial grievances were 
taken up and fearlessly discussed, and the attack was 
carried on in a satirical vein, well calculated to enrage 
the victims beyond expression. The authorship of these 
articles was generally attributed to the defeated coun- 
cillors, William Smith and James Alexander. The peo- 
ple were delighted with the wit and pungency of these 
missiles, but they were not relished quite so well by 
the governor and council, who deemed them incendiary 
productions, and as such, demanded the punishment 
of the author. At a meeting of the council on the 
2d of November, 1734, four numbers of the obnoxious 
paper containing the alleged libels were ordered to be 
burnt at the pillory by the hands of the common hang- 
man, in presence of the mayor and aldermen. Robert 
Lurting was at this time mayor of the city. On the 
presentation of the order at the quarter sessions, the 
aldermen protested against it, and the court refused 
to suffer it to be entered ; Francis Harrison, the 
recorder, alone attempting to justify it by precedents 
drawn from the English courts. They even forbade the 
hangman to execute the order ; and his place was sup- 
plied by a negro slave of the sheriff. The papers were 
burned in the presence of Harrison and a few of the 
partisans of the governor, the magistrates unanimously 
refusing to witness the ceremony. 

A few days after, Zenger was arrested, on the charge 
of publishing seditious libels, thrown into prison, and 
denied the use of pen, ink and paper. The jails at this 
time, and indeed as late as 1760, were all under the 



334 HISTORY OF THE 

roof of the City Hall, in Wall street ; this building, 
therefore, served as the prison of Zenger. His friends 
procured a habeas corpus and insisted on his being 
admitted to bail, when he was ordered by the court to 
give bail for four hundred pounds, with two additional 
sureties of two hundred pounds each. This was impos- 
sible — he swore that, excepting the tools of his trade, he 
was not worth forty pounds in the world, and the oath 
procured his recommittal to prison. In the meantime, 
he continued to edit his paper, giving directions to his 
assistants through a chink in the door. His adversaries 
replied through the columns of Bradford's Gazette, and 
still more effectually, through the decrees of the courts 
which they held at their disposal. 

The grand-jury having refused to find an indictment 
against the prisoner, on the 28th of January, 1735, the 
attorney- general filed an information against him for a 
false, scandalous, seditious and malicious libel. Smith 
and Alexander were retained as his counsel. They 
began by taking exceptions to the commissions of Chief 
Justice De Lancy and Judge Philipse, because these com- 
missions ran during pleasure instead of during good 
behavior in conformity with the usual formula, and had 
been granted by the governor without the advice or con- 
sent of his council. The court refused to listen to the 
plea, and to punish the audacity of the counsel for 
framing it, ordered their names to be struck from the 
list of attorneys. 

At this time, there were but three lawyers of eminence 
in the city — Smith, Alexander, and Murray ; and the 
latter of these being retained by the government party. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 335 

Zenger was thus left destitute of any able counsel. This 
was exactly what the court had wished and foreseen. 
Determined to thwart this ingeniously concerted intrigue, 
liis friends secretly engaged the services of the vener- 
able Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, then eighty years 
of age, but in full possession of his faculties, and one of 
the most distinguished barristers of the day. Hamilton 
was imbued with the liberal principles that were fast 
springing up on the soil of America, and had shown 
himself earnest in opposing the despotic tyranny which 
England was beginning openly to exert over her colonial 
possessions. A more able or eloquent advocate could 
scarcely have been found, and the scheme which had 
been designed by the enemies of Zenger to insure his 
ruin, ultimately j^roved the means of his salvation. 

On the 4th of August, 1735, the court assembled in 
the City Hall for the trial of the prisoner. The court- 
room was crowded to excess, and the unexpected appear- 
ance of the eloquent Hamilton as counsel for Zenger 
filled the opposition party with astonishment and dis- 
may. The trial came on in the Supreme Court, De Lan- 
cey acting as chief justice, Philipse as second judge, and 
Bradley as attorney-general. John Chambers, who had 
been appointed by the court as counsel for the prisoner, 
pleaded " not guilty" in behalf of his client, and obtained 
a struck jury composed of Thomas Hunt, foreman, Stanley 
Holmes, Edward Mann, John Bell, Harmanus Rutgers, 
Samuel Weaver, Egbert Van Borson, Andries Marschalk, 
Abraham Ketteltas, Benjamin Hildreth, Hercules Wen- 
dover and John Goelet. As this trial possesses peculiar 
interest to our readers as being the dawn of the llevolu- 



336 HISTORY OF THE 

lion in the city of New York, and the first vindicatioa of 
the freedom of the press in America, we will transcribe 
the alleged libels in full, that they may the better com- 
prehend the force of the arguments and the position of 
affairs. The libels complained of read as follows : 

" Your appearance in print at last gives a pleasure to 
" many, though most wish you had come fairly into the 
" open field, and not appeared behind retrenchments 
" made up of the supposed laws against libelling ; these 
" retrenchments, gentlemen, may soon be shown to you 
" and all men to be very weak, and to have neither law 
" nor reason for their foundation, so cannot long stand 
"you in stead; therefore you had much better as yet 
" leave them, and come to what the people of this city 
" and province think on the points in question. They 
" think as matters now stand that their liberties and 
" properties are precarious, and that slavery is like to be 
" entailed on them and their posterity if some past things 
" be not amended, and this they collect from many past 
" proceedings." 

" One of our neighbors of New Jersey being in com- 
" pany, observing the strangers of New York full of 
' ' complaints, endeavored to persuade them to remove 
•'into Jersey; to which it was replied, that would 
"be leaping out of the frying-pan into the fire ; ' for,' 
" says he, 'we both are under the same governor, and 
" your Assembly have shown with a witness what is to be 
" expected from them.' One that was then moving from 
" New York to Pennsylvania, to which place it is reported 
" several considerable men are removing, expressed in 
"very moving terms much concern for the circumstances 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 00* 

" of New York, and seemed to think them very much 
" owing to the influence that some men had in the admin- 
" istration, said he was now going from them, and was 
" not to be hurt by any measures they should take ; but 
" could not help having some concern for the welfare of 
"his countrymen, and should be glad to hear that the 
' Assembly would exert themselves as became them, by 
"showing that they have the interest of the country 
" more at heart than the gratification of the private views 
" of any of their members, or being at all affected by the 
"smiles or frowns of a governor ; both of which ought 
" equally to be despised when the interest of their coun- 
' ' try is at stake. ' You, ' says he, ' complain of the lawyers, 
"but I think that the law itself is at an end. We see 
"men's deeds destroyed ; judges arbitrarily displaced; 
"new courts erected without consent of the legislature, 
" by which it seems to me, trials by juries are taken away 
"whenever a governor pleases, men of known estates 
" denied their votes, contrary to the received practice of 
"the best expositor of any law. Who is there in that 
" province that can call anything his own, or enjoy any 
"liberty longer than those in the administration will 
" condescend to let them do it, for which reason I left 
" it, as 1 believe more will.' " 

Hamilton boldly admitted the publication of these 
articles. "Then the verdict must be for the king!" 
exclaimed Bradley, triumphantly. Hamilton quietly 
reminded him that printing and libelling were not syno- 
nymous terms, and was proceeding to prove the truth 
of the charges contained in the alleged libels, when he 
was interrupted by the attorney-general, on the plea 
22 



338 HISTORY OF THE 

that the truth of a libel could not be taken in evidence. 
" What is a libel ?" asked Hamilton in reply. "What 
" the legal authorities declare it to be," returned Brad- 
ley. "Whether the person defamed be a private man, 
"or a magistrate, whether living or dead, whether the 
" libel be true or false, or the party against whom it is 
" made be of good or evil fame, it is nevertheless a libel, 
"and as such, must be dealt with according to law ; for 
"in a settled state of government, every person has a 
" right to redress for all grievances done him. As to its 
" publication, the law has taken such great care of men's 
" reputations that if one maliciously repeats it or sings it 
' ' in the presence of another, or delivers a copy of it over 
" to defame or scandalize the party, he is to be punished 
" as the publisher of a libel. It is likewise evident that 
"it is an offence against the law of God, for Paul him- 
" self has said, 'I wist not, brethren, that he was the 
" high-pi'iest ; for it is written, thou shalt not speak 
" evil of the ruler of thy people.' " 

Continuing at length in the same strain of argu- 
ment, he went on to demonstrate that Zenger had 
been guilty of a gross offence against God and man in 
attacking by words and innuendoes the sacred person of 
royalty through its representative, the governor, and 
quoted precedents to show that, whether true or false, a 
libel remained the same in the eye of the law. Despite 
the indignant protests of Hamilton, the court sustained 
the sage conclusions of the attorney-general, and decided 
that a libel was all the more dangerous for being true. 
After some brilliant sparring between the eloquent advo- 
cate, and Bradley and De Lancey, in which the two lat- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 339 

ter gentlemen were decidedly worsted, Chambers pro- 
ceeded to address the jury in behalf of his client. 
Hamilton followed in a brilliant speech, ridiculing witli 
biting sarcasm the decision of the court that truth, only 
made a libel the more dangerous; and insisting that the 
jury were the judges both of the law and the fact, he 
adjured them to protect their own liberties, now threat- 
ened in the person of the persecuted Zenger. He quoted 
the precedent of the Quakers in London, who, having 
been shut out of their own meeting-house, preached to 
three hundred of their persuasion in the streets, and 
were afterwards indicted for disturbing the peace by 
gathering together a tumultuous assembly. In this case, 
the fact of the meeting being confessed, the court had 
charged the jury to convict the prisoners ; but the jury 
had asserted their right to judge of the character of the 
assembly, and finding it neither tumultuous nor unlawful, 
had returned a verdict of " not guilty." After urging 
the evident analogy of this case to that of his client, " It 
" is very plain," said he, " that the jury are by law at 
"liberty (without any affront to the judgment of the 
"court) to find both the law and the fact in our case. 
" And may I not, too, be allowed to say that, by a little 
" countenance, almost anything which a man writes may, 
' ' with the help of that useful term of art, called an 
" innuendo, be construed to be a libel, according to Mr. 
" Attorney's definition of it ; that whether the words are 
" spoken of a person of public character, or of a private 
"man, whether dead or living, good or bad, true or 
" false, all make a libel, for, according to Mr. Attorney, 
" after a man hears a writing read, or reads or repeats 



340 HISTORY OF THE 

" it, or laughs at it, they all are punishable. It is true, 
" Mr. Attorney is so good as to allow, after the i:)arty 
" knows it to be a libel ; but he is not so kind as to take 
" the man's word for it. 

" If a libel is understood in the large and unhmited 
" sense urged by Mr. Attorney, there is scarce a writing 
" I know that may not be called a libel, or scarce any per- 
" son safe from being called to account as a libeller ; for 
" Moses, meek as he was, libelled Cain, and who is it that 
" has not libelled the devil; for, according to Mr. Attorney, 
" it is no justification to say that one has a bad name. 
" Echard has libelled our good King William. Burnet 
" ]ias libelled among others, King Charles and King 
" James, and Rapin has libelled them all. How must a 
" man speak or write, or what must he hear, read, or sing, 
" or when must he laugh, so as to be secure from being 
' taken up as a libeller. I sincerely believe that were 
' some persons to go through the streets of New York 
" now-a-days and read a part of the Bible, if it were 
" not known to be such, Mr. Attorney, with the help of 
" his innuendoes, would easily turn it to be a libel. As 
" for instance, the sixteenth verse of the ninth chapter of 
" Isaiah : ' The leaders of the people (innuendo, the gov- 
" ernor and council of New York) cause them (innuendo, 
" the people of this province) to err, and they (meaning 
" the people of this province) are destroyed (innuendo, 
" are deceived into the loss of their liberty), which is the 
" worst kind of destruction.' Or, if some person should 
" publicly repeat, in a manner not pleasing to his betters. 
" the tenth and eleventh verses of the fifty-fifth chapter 
" of the same book, then Mr. Attorney would have a 



CITY OF NEW TORK. 341 

" large field to display his skill in the artful aiDplication 
" of his innuendoes. The words are, 'His watchmen are 
" all blind, they are ignorant ; yea, they are greedy 
"dogs, that can never have enough.' But to make 
" them a libel, no more is wanting than the aid of his 
" skill in the right adapting of his innuendoes. As for 
" instance, ' His watchmen (innuendo, the governor, coun- 
" oil, and Assembly) are blind ; they are ignorant 
" (innuendo, will not see the dangerous designs of his 
" excellency) ; yea they (meaning the governor and 
" council) are greedy dogs which can never have enough 
" (innuendo, of riches and power).' " 

After dwelling on the fact that, laughable as these 
illustrations might be, they were strictl}' analogous to 
the charges against his client, and urging the jury to 
judge for themselves of the truth or falsehood of Zenger's 
articles and to render their verdict accordingly, the elo- 
quent barrister thus concluded his remarks : "I am truly 
" unequal to such an undertaking on many accounts. 
■' And you see I labor under the weight of many years, 
" and am borne down by many infirmities of body ; yet, 
" old and weak as I am, I should think it my duty, if 
"required, to go to the utmost part of the land, where 
" my service could be of any use in assisting to quench 
" the flame of prosecutions upon informations set on foot 
" by the government to deprive a people of the right of 
"remonstrating (and complaining too) against the arbi- 
" trary attempts of men in power. Men who injure and 
" oppress the people under their administration provoke 
" them to cry out and complain, and then make that 
" very complaint the foundation for new oppressions and 



342 HISTORY OF THE 

" prosecutions. I wish I could say there were no 
"instances of this kind. But to conclude, the question 
'' before the Court and you, gentlemen of the jury, is 
"not of small or private concern ; it is not the cause of 
" a poor printer, nor of New York alone which you are 
" now trying. No ! it may, in its consequences, affect 
" every freeman that lives under the British gov- 
" ernment upon the main of America. It is the best 
" cause ; it is the cause of liberty ; and I make no doubt 
" but your upright conduct this day will not only entitle 
" you to the love and esteem of your fellow citizens ; but 
" every man who prefers freedom to a life of slavery, 
" will bless and honor you as men who have baffled the 
" attempts of tyranny, and, by an impartial and incorrupt 
"verdict, have laid a noble foundation for securing to 
" ourselves, our posterity, and our neighbors, that to 
" which nature and the laws of our country have given 
" us a right — the hberty of both exposing and opposing 
" arbitrary power in these parts of the world at least by 
" speaking and writing truth." 

The orator concluded amidst a burst of applause. 
Every eye in the court-room glistened with admiration, 
and every heart forgot the dead letter of the law in the 
living inspiration of truth and patriotism. Wholly borne 
down by this torrent of eloquence, Bradley attempted 
but a brief reply, and De Lancey vainly charged the jury 
that they were judges of the fact but not of the law, 
and that the truth of the libel was a question beyond 
their jurisdiction. Reason and common sense prevailed 
for once over technicalities ; the jury withdrew, and 
returned after a few minutes' deliberation, with the 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 343 

unfinimous verdict of " not guilty." The court-room 
rung with huzzas which the disappointed judges vainly 
endeavored to suppress, and Hamilton was borne from 
the hall by the exultant crowd to a splendid entertain- 
ment prepared for his reception. The next day, a public 
dinner was given him by the whole city, at which the 
corporation presented him with the freedom of the city 
in token of their appreciation of his defence of the 
rights of the people and the freedom of the press. A 
magnificent gold box, in which to inclose the certificate, 
was also purchased by private subscription and pre- 
sented to him on the part of the citizens. On this was 
engraved the arms of the city, encircled with the words, 

" DeMERS/E leges TIMEFACTA LIBERTAS — II^C TANDEM 

" EMERGUNT ;" within a flying garter, " Non nxjmmis, 
"virtute paratur ;" and on the front, " Ita cuique 
" eveniat ut de eepublica meruit." The entertainment 
over, Mr. Hamilton was escorted to the wharf by a crowd 
of citizens, and entered the barge to return to Philadel- 
phia under a triumphant salute of cannon. 

Thus ended the celebrated Zenger trial, which 
established the freedom of the press, and planted the 
seeds which germinated among the people and sprung 
up, like the sown dragon's teeth, a host of armed war- 
riors. But its result was chiefly due to the brilliant 
defence of its eloquent advocate ; and the daring political 
principles, for the first time in America fearlessly avowed 
in it, and as fearlessly maintained by an independent 
jury in the face of an interested court and an arbitrary 
governor, formed a precedent for resistance to oppres- 
sion which ripened at last into the American Revolution 



344 HISTORY OF THE 

The corporation, however, did not persist in their 
independence, but obsequiously courted the favor of the 
governor by waiting on his brother, Major Alexander 
Cosby, and his son-in-law, Thomas Freeman, on their 
arrival in the province, and, presenting them with the 
freedom of the city in silver boxes, besides offering them 
the most fulsome adulation. The veneration for nobility 
was stiU existing in the minds of the citizens, and of the 
officials most especially ; and they let slip no opportunity 
of manifesting it when it was not in direct opposition to 
their rights or interests. Soon after the arrival of Cosby 
and Freeman, Lord Augustus Fitzroy, the youngest son 
of the Duke of Grafton, visited the governor. Hardly 
had he landed, when the corporation waited on him in a 
body, and, congratulating him on his safe arrival and 
thanking him for having honored New York with his 
presence, presented him with the freedom of the city in 
a gold box. The mention of this occurrence is the most 
important record found upon the minutes of 1732. The 
same record also informs us that, while fourteen pounds 
eight shillings was paid for this box, but ten pounds 
could be afforded for the quarter's salary of the public 
schoolmaster. This same Lord Augustus Fitzroy after- 
wards became the hero of a romantic episode. Being a 
youth of a susceptible temperament, he soon fell in love 
with the governor's daughter. By the standard of society, 
the match was beneath him, and though her parents 
probably encouraged it in secret, they dared not give 
their consent openly. A clergyman was secretly intro- 
duced into the fort, and the marriage ceremony per- 
formed without license. The affair gave great dis- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 345 

pleasure to the friends of the young nobleman, who 
accused Cosby of having inveigled him into an unequal 
marriage, and the union proved an unhappy one in many 
respects. 

The check which Cosby had received in the Zenger 
affair did not hinder him from further attempts against 
the liberties of the people. He refused to dissolve the 
Assembly, contrary to their own wishes and the petition 
of the citizens, ordered a re-survey of the old grants and 
patents in the hope of deriving a revenue from the fees, 
and destroyed valuable documents which had been 
intrusted to him by the corporation of Albany, and 
which were obstacles in the way of his acquisitions. On 
the 10th of March, 1736, his rapacity was suddenly 
checked by his death. But, retaining his animosity to 
the last, he called the members of his council together in 
his chamber, and suspended Rip Van Dam, his former 
antagonist, who, as the eldest member, was legally his 
successor. 

Upon the announcement of Cosby's decease, the coun- 
cil assembled, and for the first time proclaiming the sus- 
pension of Yan Dam, proceeded to administer the oaths 
of office to George Clarke, the next in council. The 
declaration of this fact was the signal for new dissensions. 
As the eldest member of the council, Van Dam was 
entitled to administer the government, and, knowing 
himself to be popular, he demanded it as his right, claim- 
ing the suspension to be invalid. The people, headed 
by Morris, who had just arrived from England, whither 
he had gone for the purpose of effecting the removal of 
Cosby, rallied round their favorite, and exhibited such 



346 HISTORY OF THE 

unmistakable signs of hostility that Clarke hastily 
retreated into the fort, and summoned the military to 
his aid. Terrified at the threatening state of affairs, 
he sent to Morris to ask his advice. "If you don't 
"hang them, they will hang you," was the significant 
reply. But he did not need to have recourse to 
such desperate measures, for, on the 14th of October, 
dispatches arrived from England which confirmed him 
in his authority and commissioned him to act as lieu- 
tenant-governor. 

Clarke, though born in England, had long been a resi- 
dent of the colony. He was politic and sagacious, com- 
prehending the spirit of the people and the best methods 
of winning popularity. Knowing that he could only 
hope to hold the office until the appointment of a new 
governor, and . anxious in the meantime to secure a 
princely fortune, his chief aim was to act in such a man- 
ner as to ingratiate himself with both parties. His first 
act was to dissolve the Assembly, and to restore Smith 
and Alexander to the bar. Lewis Morris had previously 
been appointed governor of New Jersey, now again 
divorced from Xew York. 

A new Assembly, consisting in great part of the 
popular party, met in the summer of 1737, and many 
important bills were passed during their first session. 
But, despite the insinuating policy of the new lieutenant- 
governor, they firmly refused to grant a revenue for a 
longer time than one year, and this resolution was 
strictly adhered to in future. One of the most significant 
incidents in this session, as marking the popular prejudices 
of the times, was an act disfranchising the Jews in the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 347 

proviuce. This fanatical proceeding was owing chiefly 
to the efforts of Wilham Smith, the lawyer, who has 
already figured so prominently in our pages. 

We will now glance at the progress of the city during 
the administration of the late governor. In 1734, the 
first poor-house, of which we have already made men- 
tion, was erected in the Commons on the site of the 
future " Old Alms-house." The building was forty-six 
feet long, twenty-four feet wide and two stories high, 
with a cellar, and was furnished with implements of 
labor for the use of the inmates. The churchwardens 
were appointed as overseers of the poor, and all paupers 
were required to work under penalty of receiving 
moderate correction. Parish children were to be taught 
there to read, write and cast accounts, and to be employed 
in some useful labor ; and as the building was also a house 
of correction, it was used as a sort of calaboose for 
unruly slaves, their masters having permission to send 
them thither for punishment. A large vegetable garden 
was laid out about the house, which was cultivated by 
the inmates, and the produce devoted to the use of the 
institution. In the same year, Cortlandt street was first 
surveyed and opened. 

In 1735, Robert Lurting died, after having discharged 
the duties of the mayoralty for nine years, and Paul 
Richard was appointed in his stead. Mr. Richard was a 
merchant of French extraction, his gi-andfather having 
emigrated from France to New York in tJie early days 
of the English conquest. He retained the office for three 
years. The first event of importance during his admin- 
istration was the laying of the first stone of the battery 



348 



HISTORY or THE 




01(1 Ferry House, Corner of Broad and Garden Streets. 



upon the platform of the Whitehall rocks, a little to the 
east of the Copsey Battery. This was performed with 
great ceremony, the stone being laid by Governor 
Cosby, in the midst of great rejoicings. But an 
untoward event occurred to mar the festivity — a cannon 
burst in firing a salute, killing John Syms, the high 
sheriff, Miss Cortlandt, daughter of the councillor, and 
a son-in-Uiw of Alderman De.Riemer. The new works 
were christened George Augustus' Royal Battery. 
During the same year, the city watch was increased to 
ten men and two constables, and additional precautions 
were taken to prevent fires and to provide for the public 
safety. 

In 1737, Water street, which had received its name 
the previous year, was extended from Fulton street to 
Peck slip, a distance of four hundred feet. Trinity 
church was also enlarged, for the last time, on the north 
and south sides, making it seventy-two feet in width and 
a hundred and forty-six feet in lengtli, including the 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



349 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 



351 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 35.S 

tower and chancel. The spire was one hundred and 
eighty feet liigh. In 1739, its churchyard was enUirged, 
and Rector street was opened to the city. 

In 1738, a sort of quarantine was established at Bed- 
low's Island. The smallpox was raging in South 
Carolina as it had raged in New York seven or eight 
years before, and the citizens, alarmed at the danger, 
entreated that all suspected vessels should anchor at 
Bedlow's Island nor be sufTered to discharge their 
cargoes until they had first been visited and examined 
by physicians. This was accordingly done, and the panic 
soon ceased. 

In 1739, Mayor Richard was succeeded by John 
Cruger, a well-known merchant of the city, who had been 
engaged in his early youth in the slave trade, on the coast 
of Africa ; and afterwards, almndoning this pursuit, had 
settled in the city as a merchant and entered likewise 
into public affairs. He continued in the mayoralty for 
five years. During the first year of his administration, 
a large market-house was erected in Broadway, opposite 
Liberty street. Markets were now among the most 
flourishing institutions of the city, and were under the 
strict supervision of the municipal authorities, the mayor 
himself usually officiating as clerk. During this year, 
William Sharpas, the town-clerk, died, having served 
the corporation in that capacity for a term of forty-seven 
years. 

The winter of 1740-1 was remembered for many years 

as "the Hard Winter." The intense cold continued 

from the middle of November to the close of March. 

The snow was six feet on a level, the Hudson was frozen 

23 



354: CITY OP NEW YORK. 

at New York, and great suffering was felt among the 
poor. But the severity of the season was a trifle in com- 
parison with the cloud of terror and cruelty which was 
now hovering in the horizon of New York. The evil 
which the people had so long been cherishing in their 
midst was now about to recoil upon them with conse- 
quences which would long be remembered with horror. 
The negro plot — that counterpart of the Salem witch- 
craft — was on the eve of its development ; the details 
we reserve for another chapter. 



CHAPTER XII. 

1741—1753. 
The Negro Plot of 1741. 

The negro plot of the city of New York will long con- 
tinue to be classed in the foremost rank of popular 
delusions, even exceeding in its progress and its fearful 
dmoument, the celebrated Popish Plot concocted by 
Titus Gates. At this distance, it is difficult to ascertain 
how many grains of truth were mingled with the mass 
of prejudice, or to discover the wild schemes which may 
have sprung up in the brains of the oppressed and excit- 
able negroes, but certain it is that nothing can justify the 
wholesale panic of a civilized community, or the indis- 
criminate imprisonment and execution of scores of igno- 
rant beings without friends or counsel, on no other evi- 
dence than the incoherencies of a few wretches more 
degraded than they, supported by the horror of a terror- 
struck imagination. We shall endeavor to follow the 
development of this singular plot clearly and simply, 
leaving the reader to draw his own inference from the 
facts and to determine how much credence should be 
given the testimony. 



356 HISTORY OF THE 

At this time, New York contained about ten thousand 

inhabitants, nearly one-fifth of whom were negro slaves. 

Since the first introduction of slavery into the province 

in the days of Wilhelm Kieft, it had increased and 

flourished to an alarming extent. Every householder 

who could afford it was surrounded by negroes, who were 

contemptuously designated as "the black seed of Cain," 

and deprived, not only of their liberty, but also of the 

commonest rights of humanity. We have already 

adverted to some of the laws established from time to 

time in respect to these unfortunate beings. These 

ordinances were of the most stringent character. "All 

'blacks were slaves," says a late historian, "and slaves 

' could not be witnesses against a freeman. They were 

' incapable of buying anything, even the minutest neces- 

' sary of life ; they were punishable by master or mistress 

' to any extent short of life and limb ; as often as three 

' of them were found together, they were punished with 

' forty lashes on the bare back ; and the same legal 

' liability attended the walking with a club outside the 

' master's grounds without a permit. Two justices might 

'inflict any punishment short of death or amputation 

' for a blow or the smallest assault upon a Christian or 

' a Jew." Such was the spirit of the laws of the times. 

It had been the constant pohcy, both of the Dutch and 

English governments, to encourage the importation of 

slaves as much as possible ; the leading merchants of the 

city were engaged in the traffic, which was regarded by 

the public as strictly honorable, and, at the time of which 

we speak, New York was literally swarming with negroes, 

and presented all the features of a future Southern 



CITY OP NEW YORK. 357 

city, with its calaboose on the Commons and us market- 
place at the foot of Wall street. The people were 
not blind to the possible danger from this oppressed 
yet powerful host that was silently gathering in their 
midst, and the slightest suspicious movement on the part 
of the negroes was sufficient to excite their distrust and 
alai-m. Since the supposed plot of 1712, of which we 
have already spoken, a growing fear of the slaves had 
pervaded the city, and the most stringent measures had 
been adopted to prevent their assemblages and to keep 
them under strict surveillance. But it was difficult to 
restrain the thieving propensities of the negroes ; petty 
thefts were constantly committed, and it was one of these 
that first paved the way to the real or supposed discovery 
of a plot to murder the inhabitants and take possession 
of the city. 

On the 14th of March, 1741, some goods and silver 
were stolen from the house of a merchant named Robert 
Hogg, on the corner of Broad and Mill or South William 
streets. The police immediateiy set to work to discover 
the thieves, and suspicion having fiillen upon John 
Hughson, the keeper of a low negro tavern on tlie shores 
of the North River, his house was searched, but to no 
effect. Soon after, an indentured servant girl of Hugh- 
son's, by the name of Mary Burton, told a neighbor that 
the goods were really hidden in the house, but that Hugh- 
son would kill her if he knew that she had said so. This 
rumor soon came to the ears of the authorities, who at 
once arrested Mary Burton and lodged her in the city 
;ail, promising her her freedom if she would confess all 
tliat she knew about the matter. 



358 HISTORY OF THE 

On the 4th of March, the Court met at the City Hall, 
and John Hughson, his wife, Mary Burton, and an Irish- 
woman of depraved character, commonly known as 
Peggy Carey, but whose real name was Margaret Soru- 
biero, who was also an inmate of Hughson's house, were 
brought before them. Mary Burton testified that a 
negro named CfBsar, belonging to John Varick, had left 
goods and money in the keeping of Peggy, a part of 
which had been concealed by Hughson. This, Peggy 
obstinately denied, but Hughson admitted that he had 
concealed some pieces of linen and silver. Csesar and 
another negro named Prince Amboyman were at once 
arrested and committed to prison, both denying the rob- 
bery. Some of the stolen goods were discovered under 
the kitchen-floor of the house of Caesar's master, and 
restored to the owner, and here the matter rested. Not a 
word was said during the trial of any plot or conspiracy. 

Affairs stood in this wise, when, about noon on the 
18th of March, the governor's house, in the fort next the 
King's Chapel,* then occupied by Lieutenant-Governor 
Clarke, was discovered to be on fire. All efforts to save 
it were in vain ; it was burned to the ground, together 
with the chapel, the secretary's office, the stables and 
the barracks. The conflagration was at the time attrib- 
uted to the carelessness of a plumber who had left fire 
in a gutter between the house and the chapel, and it was 
so reported bj' the governor to the legislature. A week 
after, the chimney of Captain Warren's house near the 
fort took fire, but the flames were soon extinguished with 

• The old church in the fort, built by Wilhelm Kiert 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 359 

little damage. A few days after, a fire broke out in tlie 
storehouse of Mr. Van Zandt, which, at the time, was 
attributed to the carelessness of a smoker. 

Three days after, the hay in a cow-stable near the 
house of Mr. Quick was discovered to be on fire. The alarm 
was given and the flames were soon suppressed. While 
returning to their homes, the people were called by a 
fifth alarm to the house of Mr. Thompson, where it was 
said that fire had been placed in a kitchen-loft where a 
negro usually slept. The next day, coals were discov- 
ered under the stables of John Murray in Broadway. 
The following morning, a fire broke out in the house of 
Sergeant Burns, opposite the fort ; and a few hours after, 
the roof of Mr. Hilton's house, near the Fly Market, 
was discovered to be on fire. Both were extinguished 
without much damage, but the rapid recurrence of so 
many fires alarmed the inhabitants, and a rumor was soon 
circulated that the negroes had plotted to burn the city. 
For some days past, the slaves had been objects of sus- 
picion ; this suspicion now ripened into certainty. A 
short time before, a Spanish vessel, manned in part by 
blacks, had been brought into port as a prize, and the 
negroes condemned to be sold as slaves at auction. The 
exasperated Africans, who had hitherto been freemen, 
murmured loudly at this harsh usage, and rashly let fall 
threats which were now recalled as words of ominous 
import. One of these negroes had been bought by Mr. 
Sarly, the next neighbor to Mr. Hilton, whose house had 
been fired. On being questioned about the matter, his 
answers were deemed evasive, and suspicions were at 
once excited against himself and his companions. "The 



oGO HISTORY OF THE 

" Spanish negroes ! the Spanish negroes ! take up the 
" Spanish negroes ! " was the general cry ; and the unfor- 
tunate wretches were at once arrested and thrown into 
prison, together with Quack, a negro of Mr. Walters, who 
had been heard to mutter some incoherent words about 
the fire. 

The magistrates met the same afternoon to consult 
about the matter, and while they were still in session, 
another fire broke out in the roof of Colonel Phihpse's 
storehouse. The alarm became universal ; the negroes 
were seized indiscriminately and thrown into prison ; 
among them, many who had just helped to extinguish the 
fire. People and magistrates were alike panic struck, 
and the rumor gained general credence, that the negroes 
had plotted to burn the city, massacre the inhabitants, 
and effect a general revolution. 

On the 11th of April, 1741, the Common Council 
assembled, and offered a reward of one hundred pounds 
and a full pardon to any conspirator Avho would reveal 
his knowledge of the plot with the names of the incen- 
diaries. Many of the terrified citizens removed with 
their household goods and valuables from what they 
began to deem a doomed city, paying exorbitant prices 
for vehicles and assistance. The city was searched for 
strangers and suspicious persons, but none were found, 
and the negroes were examined without effect. Cuff 
Philipse,* who had been among those arrested, was 
proved to have been among the most active in extin- 
guishing the fire at his master's house, yet he was held 

* The negroes were famiViarly called by the surnames of their masters. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 361 

ill prison to await further developments, and soine things 
being found in the possession of Robin Chambers and 
his wife which were judged unbecoming their condition 
as slaves, they were thrown into prison and the articles 
delivered to the mayor. 

On the 21st of April, 1741, the Supreme Court 
assembled for the especial purpose of investigating the 
matter, Judges Philipse and Horsmanden being present. 
The grand Jury was composed of Robert Watts, foreman, 
Jeremiali Latouche, Joseph Read, Anthony Rutgers, 
John Cruger, jr., John McEvers, Adonijah Schuyler, 
Abraham de Peyster, John Merrit, David Provoost, 
Abraham Ketteltas, Henry Beekman, Rene Hett, David 
Van Home, Winant Van Zandt, George Spencer and 
Thomas Duncan. The proclamation of pardon and 
reward was read to Mary Burton, who deposed that 
Ciesar and Prince brought the stolen goods to the house, 
and that Hughson, his wife and Peggy received them. 
She said, too, that Cajsar, Prince and Cuff Philipse used 
frequently to meet at Hughson's, and talk about burning 
first the fort and then the whole city, and that Hughson 
and his wife promised to assist them. When this was 
done, Hughson was to be governor, and Cuff king. 
Then Cuff used to say that some people had too much 
and others too little ; that his old master had a great 
deal now, but that the time was coming when he would 
have less, and Cuff more ; that they would set fire to the 
town in the night, and, when the whites came to 
extinguish it, would kill and destroy them. She swore, 
moreover, that she had never seen any white person in 
company when they talked of burning tlie town, save 



362 dlSTORY OF THE 

her master and mistress with Peggy. All this story of 
a plot conceived by a poor tavern-keeper and his wife 
with a few ignorant negroes for the destruction of a city 
of ten thousand inhabitants was received with eager 
avidity by the credulous magistrates, and Mary Burton 
became at once the heroine of the day. 

The jury next examined Peggy Carey, promising hei 
pardon and reward if she would make a full confession, 
but she persistently denied all knowledge of the fires, 
and said that, if she should accuse any one of any such 
thing, she must slander innocent persons and blacken 
her own soul. She was convicted of having received 
and secreted the stolen goods, and sentenced to death 
with Prince and Caesar. The daughter of Hughson with 
one of his slaves were also committed as being impli- 
cated in the conspiracy. 

Terrified at the prospect of a speedy death, the 
wretched Peggy endeavored to avert her fate by grasp- 
ing the means of rescue which had before been offered 
her, and begged for a second examination ; and, this 
being granted her, confessed that meetings of negroes 
had been held in the last December at the house of 
John Romme, a tavern-keeper near the new Battery, of 
the same stamp with Hughson, at which she had been 
present ; and that Romme had told them that if they 
would set fire to the city, massacre the inhabitants and 
bring the plunder to him, he would carry them to a 
strange country and give them all their liberty. This 
confession was so evidently vamped up to save herself 
from the gallows that even the magistrates hesitated to 
behove it. Yet CufI' Philipse, Brash Jay, Cura(;'oa Dick, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 363 

Cfcsar Pintard, Patrick English, Jack Boasted and Cato 
Moore, all of whom she had named in her confession, were 
brought before her and identified as conspirators. 
Romme absconded, but his wife was arrested and com- 
mitted to prison ; and the accused were locked up for 
further examination. Upon this, the terrified negroes 
began to criminate each other, hoping thereby to save 
themselves from the fate that awaited them. But these 
efforts availed them nothing,"any more than did the con- 
fession of the miserable Peggy, who was executed at 
last, vainly denying with her dying breath her former 
confessions. In the meantime, several fires had occurred 
at Hackensack, and two negroes, suspected of being the 
incendiaries, were condemned and burnt at the stake, 
though not a particle of evidence was found against 
them. 

On Monday, the 11th of May, Coesar and Prince, the 
first victims of the negro plot, were hung on a gallows 
erected on the little island in the Fresh Water Pond, 
denying to the last all knowledge of the conspiracy, 
though they admitted that they had really stolen the 
goods. 

Hughson and his wife were tried and found guilty, 
and, with Peggy Carey, were hanged on a gibbet 
erected on the East River shore, near the corner of 
Cherry and Catharine streets. Every artifice was used 
to extract from the prisoners an admission of their guilt, 
and even to inveigle the daughter of Hughson into 
criminating her father and mother. Their examination 
elicited the new fact from Mary Burton that she had 
seen a negro give Ilughsou twelve pounds to buy guns 



3ni HISTORY OFTHE 

which he had purchased and secreted under the garret 
floor of his house. The floor was taken up, but the 
guns could neither be traced nor found ; yet this failed 
to shake the belief of the credulous magistrates, who 
still continued to accept her testimony. 

Cuff Philipse and Quack were next brought to trial, a 
negro boy named Sawney appearing as witness against 
them. This boy was at first arrested and brought 
before the magistrates, when he denied all knowledge of 
the conspiracy. He was told in reply that if he would 
tell the truth, he would not be hanged. To tell the 
truth had now come to be generally understood to mean 
the confession of a plot for burning the town. Urged 
on by his fears, he acted on the hint, and said that 
Quack had tried to persuade him to set the fort on fire ; 
and that Cuff had said that he would set fire to one 
house, Cura^oa Dick to another, and so on. A negro 
named Fortune was arrested and examined, who testified 
that Quack had told him that Sawney had confessed to 
him that it was he who had set fire to the governor's 
house. The next day, Sawney was called up and again 
examined, when he confessed that he had been frightened 
into a promise to burn the Slip market, that he had seen 
some of the houses fired by the negroes, and that he and 
the rest had been sworn to secrecy. On these accusa- 
tions, the negroes were tried for their lives ; all the 
lawyers in the city being arrayed on the side of the 
prosecution. Bradley was still attorney-general ; and 
Murray, Alexander, Smith, Chambers, Nichols, liodge 
and Jameson made uj: the balance of the New York 
attorneys. These voluntarily offered to attend the trials 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 365 

by turns ; leaving the negroes as destitute of counsel as 
tliey were of friends. Ignorant of the forms of law, and 
terrified at the prospect of tlieir impending danger, it is 
not strange that their bewildered and contradictor) 
statements were construed by their learned adversaries 
into evidences of their guilt. Quack and CufTee were 
found guilty, and sentenced to be burned at the stake on 
the 30th of May. 

On the day appointed, the fagots were piled in a 
grassy valley in the neighborhood of the present Five 
Points, and the wretched victims led out to execu- 
tion. The spot was thronged with impatient spectators, 
eager to witness the terrible tragedy. Terrified and 
trembling, the poor wretches gladly availed themselves 
of their last chance for life, and, on being questioned by 
their masters, confessed that the plot had originated with 
Hughson, that Quack's wife was the person who had set 
fire to the fort, he having been chosen for the task by 
the confederated negroes, and that Mary Burton liad 
spoken the truth and could name many more conspira- 
tors if she pleased. As a reward, they were reprieved 
until the further pleasure of the governor should be 
known. But the impatient populace, which liad come 
out for a spectacle, would not so easily be balked of its 
prey. Ominous mutterings resounded round the pile 
with threats of evil import, and the sheriff was ordered 
to proceed with his duty. Terrified by these menaces, 
he dared not attempt to take the prisoners back to the 
jail ; and the execution went on. Despite tlieir forced 
confessions, the terrible pile was lighted, and the 
wretched negroes perished in the flames, knowing that. 



366 HISTORY OF THE 

with their last breath, they had doomed their fellows to 
share their fate in vain. 

On the 6th of June, seven other negroes, named Jack, 
Cook, Robin, Caesar, CufFee, Cuffee and Jamaica, were 
tried and found guilty on the dying evidence of Quack 
and CufFee, with the stories of Mary ^urton and the 
negro boy, Sawney. All were executed the next day 
with the exception of Jack, who saved his life by pro- 
mising further disclosures. These disclosures implicated 
fourteen others, one of whom, to save his life, confessed 
and accused still more. 

On the 11th of June, Francis, one of the Spanish 
negroes, Albany, and Curapoa Dick were sentenced to 
be burned at the stake. Ben and Quack were con- 
demned to the same fate five days after. Three others 
were at the same time sentenced to be hanged, and five 
of the Spanish negroes were also convicted. 

On the 19th of June, the governor issued a proclama- 
tion of pardon to all who would confess and reveal the 
names of their accomplices before the ensuing 1st of 
July. Upon this, the accusations multiplied rapidly. 
Mary Burton, who had at first denied that any white 
man save Hughson had been implicated in the plot, now 
suddenly remembered that JohnUry, a reputed Catholic 
priest and a schoolmaster in the city, had also been 
concerned in it. His religion was proof presumptive of 
his guilt in the minds of the populace, and he was at 
once arrested and indicted, first, on the charge of having 
counselled Quack to set fire to the governor's house in 
the fort ; secondly, that, being a Catholic priest, he had 
come into the province and remained there sc^•en 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 367 

months, contrary to a law passed in the eleventh year of 
the reign of William III., condemning every Popish 
priest and Jesuit to death who should henceforth be 
found within the limits of the province. The evidence 
received against this unhappy man can only find its 
parallel in the annals of the Salem witchcraft. The tide 
of popular prejudice against the negroes was turned 
into a new channel, and the rumor of a Popish plot 
added fresh zest to the spirit of persecution. Ury was 
accused of being an emissary of the Jesuits, deputed to 
stir up the negroes to an insurrection. Sarah Hughson, 
who had been coaxed and threatened into becoming the 
tool of her parents' executioners, and had been pardoned 
from a sentence of death in order that she might give 
evidence against Ury, deposed that she had seen him 
make a ring with chalk upon the floor of her father's 
house, and, ranging all the negroes present around it, 
stand in the middle with a cross in his hand and swear 
them to secrecy ; and that she had seen him baptize 
them and forgive them their sins. This story was con- 
firmed by the testimony of Mary Burton : and William 
Kane, a soldier belonging to the fort, deposed that Ury 
had endeavored to convert him to the Catholic faith. A 
confectioner by the name of Elias Desbrosses testified 
that Ury had at one time inquired of him for wafers. 
It was also proved that he could read Latin, and that a 
joiner, the father of one of his pupils, had made a desk 
for him, which the active imagination of his judges con- 
strued into an altar. It was in vain for him to declare 
that he was a non-juring clergyman of the Church of 
Eno-land, to prove by reliable witnesses that he had 



308 HISTORY OF THE 

never associated with the negroes, and to disclaim all 
knowledge of Hughson and his family ; his judges had 
determined on his sentence in advance, and he was con- 
demned to be hanged on the 29th of August. 

The arrest of Ury was the signal for the imphcation 
of others of the whites. It was a true foreshadowing of 
the Reign of Terror. Every one feared his neighbor, 
and hastened to be the first to accuse, lest he himself 
should be accused and thrown into prison. Fresh 
victims were daily seized, and those with whom the jails 
were already full to overflowing were transported or 
hanged with scarcely the form of a trial in order to make 
room for the new comers. So rapid was the increase 
that the judges feared that the numbers might breed an 
infection, and devised short methods of ridding themselves 
of the prisoners, sometimes by pardoning, but as often 
by hanging them. From the 11th of May to the 29th 
of August, one hundred and fifty-four negroes were 
committed to prison, fourteen of whom were burnt at 
the stake, eighteen hanged, seventy-one transported and 
the rest pardoned or discharged for the want of sufficient 
evidence. In the same time, twenty-four whites were 
committed to prison, four of whom were executed. 

The tragedy would probably have continued much 
longer, had not Mary Burton, grown bolder by success, 
began to implicate persons of consequence. This at 
once aroused the fears of the influential citizens, who 
had been the foremost when only the negroes were in 
question, and put a stop to all further proceedings. The 
fearful catalogue of victims closed on the 29th of 
August with the execution of John Ury. The 24th of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 369 

September was set apart as a day of general thanksgiv- 
ing for the escape of the citizens from destruction ; Mary 
Burton received the hundred pounds that had been 
promised her as the price of blood, and the city fell back 
into a feehng of security. "Whether this plot ever had 
the shadow of an existence except in the disordered 
imaginations of the citizens can never with certainty be 
known. Daniel Horsmanden, at that time recorder, 
and one of the judges of the Supreme Court, attempts 
in a history of the conspiracy to demonstrate its existence 
and to justify the acts of the judges in the matter. But 
the witnesses were persons of the vilest character, the 
evidence was contradictory, inconsistent, and extorted 
under the fear of death, and no real testimony was adduced 
that could satisfy any man in the possession of a clear 
head and a sound judgment. Terror was really the 
strongest evidence, and the fear of the Jesuits the con- 
elusive proof. The law passed in 1700 for hanging 
every Catholic priest who voluntarily came within the 
province still disgraced the statute-book, while the feel- 
ing of intolerance which had prompted it remained as 
bitter and unyielding as ever. 

The French church in Pine street was rebuilt during 
this year. The following year was marked by the break- 
ing out of a malignant epidemic, strongly resembling the 
yellow fever in type, which carried off over two hundred 
persons. This was the second disease of the kind that 
had appeared in the city. 

In 174-3, Lieutenant-Governor Clarke was superseded 
by Admiral George Clinton, a younger son of the Earl 
of Lincoln, and the father of the Sir Henry Clinton who 
24 



370 HISTORY OF THE 

afterwards figured so conspicuously iu the city during 
tlie Revolution. Clinton arrived at New York on the 
22d of September, with his wife and family, and pub- 
lished his commission on the same day at the City Hall. 
lie was received by the corporation with the usual 
congratulatory address and the freedom of the city in a 
gold box, made by Charles Le Roux, the city goldsmith, 
at a cost of twenty pounds. Clinton was of an easy 
and indolent temjserament, anxious above all to improve 
his fortunes, and not averse to popularity. Onhis arrival, 
he at once took Chief-Justice De Lancey into his confi- 
dence, and, under his guidance, for some time, things 
went on smoothly. The Assembly voted him a hberal 
revenue for the first year, while he, in turn, assented to 
all the bills presented to him ; among which was one 
limiting the existence of this and all future Assemblies 
to a period of seven years. The third intercolonial war 
breaking out at the same time, the Assembly voted 
money to aid in carrying it on, and new expeditions were 
organized for the conquest of Canada. It was not long 
before Clinton became estranged from his first friend, 
De Lancey, and formed an alliance with Cadwallader 
Golden instead. This was the signal for the commence- 
ment of hostilities. Heading the opposition party, the 
late favorite, who was alUed either by blood or friendship 
to most of the leading men of the province, stirred up a 
fierce contest between the governor and the Assembly, 
which harassed the remainder of his administration and 
finally compelled him to withdraw^ from the province. 

In 1744, Stephen Bayard, a descendant of Nicholas 
Bayard of Leislerian memory, was appointed mayor 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



371 








I", 



VX'' 



v^ 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 373 

During the first year of his administration, steps were 
taken towards founding a college in the city. It was 
time, indeed, for, engaged in commercial and pohtical 
affairs, the citizens had neglected the interests of educa- 
tion. The few collegians in the province had been edu- 
cated in England or at the eastern colleges ; while most of 
the youth went directly from the gi-ammar-school to the 
counting-room. Smith and De Lancey were the only col- 
legians on the bench or at the bar ; and there were but 
few to be found elsewhere. To remedy this remissness, 
it was resolved to raise £2,250 by lottery — the usual 
means of effecting such an object — for the foundation of 
a college. The enterprise was at once commenced, 
though it was not until ten years after that the money 
was raised, and the corner-stone of King's, afterwards 
Columbia College laid by the governor. The manage- 
ment of the proposed institution soon became a subject 
of contention between the Episcopalian and Presbyterian 
parties, now the two gi-eat factions of the day, the former 
of which was headed by James De Lancey, and the latter 
by Philip Livingston. In this, the Episcopalians gained 
the mastery, and the college long remained under the 
control of that denomination. 

In 1747, Edward Holland was appointed mayor. He 
continued in the mayoralty until his death in 1756. In 
the first year of his administration, the Presbyterian 
church in Wall street, which had been erected during 
the administration of Hunter, was rebuilt. During the 
same year, the Common Council ordered fifty copies of 
" An Essay on the Duties of Vestrymen " to be published 
at their expense at a cost of four pounds in order to 



3^4 



HISTORY OF THE 



encourage works of this kind — one of the first cases of 
this sort on record. In the course of the next two years, 
Beekman and the contiguous streets were regulated, 
Ferry street was ceded to the city, Beekman, Dey and 
Thames streets were paved, Pearl street was dug down 
near Peck Slip and regulated from Franklin Square to 
Chatham street, and John street was paved and regu- 
lated. In 1751, a Moravian chapel was built in Fulton 
street. The following year, the first Merchant's 
Exchange was erected at the foot of Broad street, and 
St. George's chapel was built by Trinity Church on the 
corner of ClifF and Beekman streets, and was conse- 
crated on the 1st of July by the Rev. Mr. Barclay. 
This long remained in good preservation, and was well 
known to the down-town residents as one of the few 




St. George's Cbapel ia Beekman street, erected in 1752. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 375 

landmarks of the olden time. It was still a much fre- 
quented place of worship when its centenary celebration 
took place with great eclat. A few yeai's afterward, 
the ancient church, with its quaint old chandeliers and 
aisles flagged with gray stone, fell before the hammer 
of the demolisher to make room for the stately ware- 
houses that now occupy its site. It Avas j)artially de- 
stroyed by fire in 1814, but was soon after repaired and 
opened again for service. Washington was a fi-equent 
attendant of this church during his residence in the city 
in the early part of the Revolution. 

In 1748, Clinton revived the scheme of making the 
governors independent of the Assembly by means of a 
permanent revenue, and urged the latter to favor his 
designs by granting him a five years' appropriation, 
threatening them with the vengeance of the king in case 
of refusal. They did refuse it, nevertheless, and all the 
persuasions and menaces of the governor, backed by the 
royal autliority, failed to move them from the stand 
which they had taken. Another incident occurred about 
the same time which widened the breach between the 
people and the royal governors, and prepared them for 
a final separation. All colonial vessels were at this time 
required to lower their flags in token of respect when 
passing his majesty's ships of war. A captain by the 
name of Ricketts, on returning one night with his wife 
and family from New York to Elizabethtown, inadver- 
tently neglected this token of homage when passing the 
Greyhound, which lay anchored in the harbor. The cap- 
tain of the latter immediately fired a shot, of which the 
party in the boat took no notice, not dreaming that they 



376 HISTORY OF THE 

were concerned in the matter. The shot was imme- 
diately followed by another, which struck the nurse, 
killing her instantly. The news of this outrage aroused 
the citizens ; the captain was instantly an-ested and 
brought to shore, and the governor petitioned to bring 
him to trial ; but Clinton coolly disclaimed all jurisdic- 
tion in the matter, saying that his commission gave him 
no power over any of the ships of war, and that the 
offender could only be proceeded against in England. 
The people were exasperated almost to madness ; but 
there was no redress ; they were forced to be silent. 

Tn the meantime, the conduct of Clinton had alienated 
Colden, who had gone over to the party of the opposi- 
tion, and Smith, Alexander and Johnson alone remained 
as his chief supporters. Under the leadership of De 
Lancey, the Assembly grew more and more refractory, 
and, after repeated efforts to obtain his demands, grow- 
ing weary of the contest, the governor at length pro- 
rogued them. Finding that his power in the province 
was gone, and worn with the struggle against a powerful 
opposition, Clinton at last dispatched his resignation to 
England, and Sir Danvers Osborne was appointed in his 
stead. 

The new governor arrived on the 7th of September, 
1753, charged with instructions to maintain the royal 
prerogative, and to demand of the Assembly a perma- 
nent revenue to be disbursed by the governor alone. 
with the advice and consent of his council. Three days 
after, he took the oaths of office, and published his com- 
mission at the City Hall. The people welcomed him with 
shouts and huzzas, mingled with deep invectives against 



CITY OF N E M- YORK 



37' 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 379 

Clinton, who walked by his side. This expression of 
feeling wounded him deeply. "I expect the same treat- 
" ment before I leave the province," said he. On his 
return to the council chamber, the corporation met him 
with a bold address, expressing their hope that he would 
be as averse to countenancing as they should be to brook- 
ing any infringement upon their civil or religious liber- 
ties. A splendid entertainment, however, was given by 
the city in honor of the new governor ; bells were rung, ' 
cannon fired, and the whole town illuminated; yet it was 
whispered that this was due more to the appointment of 
De Lancey — now the idol of the people — as lieutenant- 
governor, than to the accession of Sir Danvers Osborne. 

On the morning of the 12th, the new governor con- 
vened the council and laid his instructions before them. 
"The Assembly will never yield obedience," said they. 
" Is this true ?" said he, turning to William Smith, who 
stood by his side. " Most emphatically so," answered 
the chief-justice in reply. " Then what am I come here 
" for !" exclaimed he, gloomily, bowing his head on the 
window-sill and covering his face with his hands. 

The next morning the whole city was in commotion. 
The body of Sir Danvers Osborne had been found sus- 
pended by a handkerchief from the garden-wall of John 
Murray's house in Broadway, where he had lodged since 
his arrival in the city. The unfortunate man had been 
dei'anged and had even attempted his life before his 
departure from England. The loss of a beloved wife 
had unsettled his reason, and his friends, hoping to work 
a cure by constant occupation and a change of scene, 
had procured him this post and sent him to New York 



380 CITY OF NEW YORK. 

to assume the government. But the fractiousness of the 
people over whom he had been sent to rule had proved 
too much for his enfeebled brain, and, seeing the impos- 
sibility of enforcing his instructions without becoming as 
odious as his predecessor, he had retired to his chamber 
after his stormy interview with the council, burned his 
papers, set his affairs in order, and deliberately put an 
end to his life. His remains were buried in Trinity 
church, the obsequies being performed with some reluct- 
ance by the rector, who protested that the burial service 
was forbidden by the rubric to those who had died by 
their own hands. This objection, however, was over- 
ruled by the council, who declared that insanity was 
equivalent to disease, and that the governor had as much 
right to Christian burial as though he had died of a 
fever ; and the body of the unfortunate Sir Danvers 
Osborne was at last permitted to repose in consecrated 
ground. The government devolved upon James De 
Lancey, now grown a favorite with a large portion of 
the people. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



New York Previous to the Revolation. 



Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancet now assumed 
the direction of affairs. His accession was hailed with 
delight by the people, to whom he had endeared himself 
by heading the party opposed to the " permanent reve- 
' ' nue " scheme of the royal governors. Strangely enough, 
the parties had changed sides. The ex-royalist faction 
— aristocratic, as it was satirically termed by its oppo- 
nents — comprising most of the wealthy and influential 
citizens, De Lancey, Van Rensselaer, Golden, Philipse, 
Heathcote, and many more, was now openly ranged on 
the side of the popular rights, while Smith, Livingston 
and Alexander, once the leaders of the people, had gone 
over to the other side, and had been foremost in the 
councils of the late governor. Under these circum- 
stances, De Lancey found himself in an embarrassing 
position. The royal instructions bequeathed to him by 
Sir Danvers Osborne directed him to insist on a perma- 
nent revenue and absolutely to refuse to sign all annual 



382 HISTORY OF THE 

appropriations, while he was pledged as the leader of 
the popular party to a policy diametrically opposed to 
this proceeding. He extricated himself from this diflS- 
culty with seeming inconsistency, but wisely in truth ; 
while, on one hand, he fulfilled his oaths of office by urg- 
ing the Assembly to conform to the royal instructions, 
on the other, he pressed the claims of the people upon 
the notice of the home government, and was eventually 
instrumental in obtaining the desired concession. 

After a series of bloody campaigns, in which the chief 
advantage on the side of the English had been the bril- 
liant conquest of Louisburg, the third intercolonial war 
had been terminated in 1748 by the peace of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, which, much to the discontent of the colonists, 
restored to France all the newly-acquired territory. But 
this peace was of short duration. The Canadians soon 
recommenced their aggressions upon the frontier settle- 
ments, and on the 19th of June, 1754, a congress of depu- 
ties from the several provinces met at Albany to concert 
measures for the common safety. Over this assembly, 
De Lancey presided. The alliance with the Iroquois 
was strengthened by presents and speeches, and plans 
were projected for mutual defence. The chief feature of 
this congress was, however, a plan for the union of the 
colonies, which was drawn up and presented by Benja 
min Franklin. This proposal, though opposed by De 
Lancey, was adopted by the convention. It was not, 
however, adapted to the times ; the people opposed it 
as giving too much power to the king, and the king, as 
giving too much liberty to the people ; thus, pleasing 
neither, it was never carried into effect ; yet it sug- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 383 

gestod the idea of a confederated power which finally 
matured into the Federal Union. 

On the 31st of October, 1754, De Lancey signed and 
sealed the charter of the projected college, though, 
owing to internal dissensions in the management, it was 
not delivered until the following May. Doctor Johnson, 
the Episcopal minister at Stratford, Connecticut, had 
already been invited to fill the president's chair of the 
institution, and Mr. Whittlesey, the Presbyterian minis- 
ter at New Haven, was chosen as vice-president. By the 
provisions of the charter, however, none but Episcopa- 
lians were made eligible as presidents — a regulation which 
occasioned much ill-feeling among the dissenters. The 
Presbyterians, headed by the Livingstons, used every 
effort to break down the college, and the city journals 
joined in the controversy. These had somewhat changed 
in character since the Zenger trial. William Bradford 
had died in the city in 1752, at an advanced age, and 
the Weekly Journal of Zenger had been discontinued in 
the same year. In January, 1743, James Parker, an 
apprentice of Bradford, had commenced a new weekly 
called the New York Gazette or Weekly Postboy, and this 
speculation proving successful, had published a monthly 
styled the American Magazine and Historical Chronicle, 
in October of the same year. The Weekly Mercury, the 
government organ, was published by Hugh Gaine at his 
office opposite the Old Slip Market. These falling into 
the hands of the Episcopalian party, the Presbyterians 
established a new journal in 1753, called i\ie Independent 
Reflector, in which their side of the college controversy 
was fully argued. The Episcopalians, however, pre- 



384 HISTORY OF THE 

vailed, thanks to the influence of their leader, De Lancey, 
and long retained control of the institution. The dis- 
putes were preparatory to the founding of the college ; 
the corner-stone of the building being laid in 1756 by 
the new governor, Sir Charles Hardy. 

In April, 1754, a scheme for the foundation of a pub- 
lic library was first projected, and a considerable amount 
being soon raised by subscription, trustees were appointed 
for the ensuing year. These trustees were James De 
Lancey, James Alexander, John Chambers, John Watts, 
William Walton, Rev. Henry Barclay, Benjamin NicoUs, 
Robert R. Livingston, William Livingston, William P. 
Smith, and Mr. Williams. The following autumn, the first 
books arrived, and were deposited in the City Hall with 
those belonging to the Corporation Library. The further 
progress of this first City Library — the embryo of the 
present Society Library — we have sketched elsewhere. 

In 1754, the "Walton House," at that time the palace 
of the city, was built in Pearl street by William Walton, 
a merchant and son-in-law of De Lancey, who had 
amassed a fortune by successful ventures in foreign trade. 
This house was elegantly fitted up in the fashion of the 
times, and furnished luxuriously ; and the fame of its 
splendor extended to England, and was quoted there as 
a proof of the mad extravagance of the colonists, and 
their ability to support unlimited taxation. The house 
was built of yellow Holland brick, with five windows in 
front, and a tiled roof, encircled with balustrades. The 
garden extended down to the river. At a later date, it 
was the scene of the marriage of Citizen Genet, the 
Minister of France, to the daughter of Governor Clin- 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



385 



ton. It still stands, stripped of its primitive splendor, 
the lower story transformed into warehouses, and the 
upper part into an emigrant boarding-house. In the 




The Walton House, in 1867. 



following year, a ferry was first established between New 
York and Staten Island, which now possessed a consid- 
erable population. During the same year, Peck Shp 
was opened and paved. 



386 HISTORY OF THE 

War having again been declared between England and 
France, the fortifications were strengthened, volunteex's 
enlisted, and a thousand stand of arms ordered for the 
defence of the city in the event of an invasion. On the 
2d of September, Sir Charles Hardy, the newly-appointed 
governor, arrived in the city, and was proclaimed the 
next day at the City Hall with the usual ceremonies. 
Hardy was a sailor, an admiral in the English navy, and 
knew far better how to steer a ship than to guide the 
affairs of a turbulent province. Fortunately, he was 
conscious of this fact himself, and frankly expressed it 
with sailor-like bluntness. " Gentlemen," said he to a 
group of the New York lawyers, "I can't pretend to 
" say that I understand the law. My knowledge relates 
" to the sea — that is my sphere. If you want to know 
" when the wind and tide suit for going down to Sandy 
" Hook, I can tell you that." Such is the confession of 
incapacity which Chief-Justice Smith attributes to the 
royal governor. But a knowledge of the science of 
government was deemed altogether superfluous in these 
officials by the English Court ; and even Pitt, the 
so-called friend of America, afterwards said in Parlia- 
ment, " There is not a company of foot that has served 
" in America out of which you may not pick a man of 
"sufficient knowledge and experience to make a gover- 
"nor of a colony there." Such was the estimation in 
which the intellect of the colonial subjects was held by 
^he mother country. 

Sir Charles Hardy having assumed the nominal direc- 
lion of affairs, De Lancey resumed his seat as chief-jus- 
tice ; but. wisely recognizing his own incapacity. Hardy 



388 



HISTORY OF THE 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 



389 




CITY OF NETV YORK. 391 

left him in actual command of the province, and enacted 
the part of a lay figure in the government. This insipid 
mode of life soon wearied the active sailor, and he 
entreated to be restored to his former command. After 
some delay, his request was granted ; the post of rear- 
admiral was conferred upon him, and he sailed from 
New York for the capture of Louisburg, leaving the 
government again in the hands of De Lancey. 

In the first 3'ear of Hardy's administration, the city had 
been deprived of its chief magistrate by death, and John 
Cruger, the son of the former ma3'or of that name, had 
been appointed to fill his place. It was not long before 
he became involved in difficulty with the royal officials. 
At this time, the French and Indian war was raging in 
the province, and Lord Loudon, the commander-in-chief 
of the American forces, sent a thousand of his troops to 
New York with directions to the city authorities to find 
quarters for them among the inhabitants. This order 
they regarded as an infraction of their rights, and quar- 
tering the soldiers in the barracks in Chambers street, 
they left the officers to take care of themselves. The 
incensed general hastened to New York, and ordered 
them at once to find free quarters for his officers, saying 
that such was both the law and the custom, and that, if 
they did not instantly comply, he would bring thither 
aU the troops in North America and billet them himself 
upon the inhabitants. This outrageous demand, though 
opposed by De Lancey, was supported by the governor. 
The indignant citizens refused to obey, the corporation 
neither dared nor wished to enforce them, and the matter 
was finally settled by providing for the officers by private 



392 HISTORY OF THE 

subscription. But the demand once made, was repeatedly 
renewed, and was one of the chief grievances that urged 
the peojDle on to the struggle for independence. 

The war, meanwhile, went on with uual)ated vigor, 
and large bodies of militia marched from New York to 
aid in the defence of the English forts and the conquest 
of Canada. Spurred on by the inhuman massacre of 
Foi"t AVilliam Henry, the colonists spared neither blood 
nor treasure in avenging their murdered countrymen. 
Louisburg, Frontenac, Crown Point, Ticonderoga, 
Niagara and Quebec fell successively into their hands, 
and the capture of Montreal in 1760 finally concluded 
a disastrous war and secured to England the conquest 
of Canada. 

In the meantime, the province had again been left 
without a ruler. On the morning of the 30th of July, 
1760, Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey was found by 
one of his children expiring in his study.* He had dined 
the day before at Staten Island with a company of 
friends, then had crossed the bay in the evening, and 
rode out to his country-seat, where he had retired to his 
library to repose in his arm-chair, as he was often forced 
to do from a chronic asthma. His remains were escorted 
the next day by a large concourse of citizens from his 
house on the east side of the Bowery, a little above 
Grand street, to Trinity Church, where he was interred 
in the middle aisle, the funeral services being performed 
by the Rev. Henry Barclay. Mr. De Lancey was a states- 
man of marked ability, and his persistent support of the 

* He was the great grauJfatber of Bishop DeLancey of New York 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 393 

system of annual appropriations — finally conceded dur- 
ing the administration of Hardy— won for him a de- 
served popularity. 

The government now devolved upon Cadwallader 
Golden, the former protege of Hunter, at this time 
seventy-three years of age. The new governor had long 
been actively engaged in public affairs, and was known 
to possess literary and political talent of no common 
order. But he assumed the reins of government at a 
critical period, and wrecked his popularity by taking 
oaths which compelled him to sacrifice the rights of his 
countrymen upon the shrine of official duty. 

Soon after his accession, an affair occurred which 
tended to increase the feeling of bitterness which was 
rapidly springing up in the hearts of the colonists against 
the mother country. The system of impressment was 
now in vogue, and the captains of the British men-of-war 
claimed the right to board colonial vessels and take 
thence the men required to complete their quota ; or 
failing in this, to land and kidnap citizens to serve in the 
British navy. These outrages excited the indignation 
of the citizens almost beyond forbearance ; but such 
were the laws ; there was no alternative but to obey. 
In the August following the death of De Lancey, a mer- 
cliant vessel arrived from Lisbon, and a man-of-war 
lying in the harbor immediately sent a boat on board to 
demand some of her men. On seeing the movements 
of the English sailors, the crew seized the captain and 
officers and confined them below, and, taking possession; 
of the ship, refused to suffer the intruders to come on 
board. The captain called to them from the cabin win- 



394 HISTORY OF THE 

dow that he and his officers were prisoners, and there- 
fore unable to obey; but, without heeding his position, 
they at once opened a fire upon the oftending merchant- 
man, kilHng one man and wounding several others. 
The affair caused much excitement, yet it was but a 
sample of the constantly recurring outrages perpetrated 
upon the colonial traders. 

In October of the same year, General Amherst, the 
conqueror of Canada, visited the city and was received 
with enthusiasm. A public entertainment was given in 
his honor, the freedom of the city in a gold box was pre- 
sented to him by the corporation, and an address, 
couched in the most flattering terms, was tendered him 
in behalf of the citizens. Salutes were fired, colors were 
displayed, and the whole city was illuminated in honor 
of the successful termination of the long-continued con- 
flict which, for so many years, had drained the energies 
of the harassed colonies. 

Early in the following year, news reached the province 
of the death of George II., and the consequent acces- 
sion of George III. to the throne of England. The city 
was hung in mourning, and funeral sermons preached in 
all the churches for the departed ; then, one week after, 
salutes were fired and illuminations made in honor of his 
successor. 

The winter proved one of intense severity. The Nar- 
rows were frozen over, and men and horses crossed on 
the ice. When spring opened, the work of public 
improvement went on, and streets were regulated and 
paved, wells dug, and other improvements made for the 
benefit of the city. Fulton, then Partition street, was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 395 

one of these ; and though it had long had a partial exist- 
ence, it was now for the first time graded and paved, 
and classed among the legitimate streets of the city. A 
theatre was also opened in Beekman street mider the 
auspices of Golden, but the Assembly frowned on this as 
detrimental to good morals, and the mayor attempted to 
obtain the passage of a law prohibiting all dramatic per- 
formances within the precincts of the city. Failing in 
this, the corporation turned their attention to the amuse- 
ment of raffling, which had grown quite common among 
the boys and negroes, and interdicted it with all similar 
games of chance, under penalty of a fine of three pounds, 
half to be paid to the churchwardens and half to the 
informer. A variety of municipal ordinances, regulating 
weights and measures, markets and docks were also 
passed, indicative of the constantly increasing prosperity 
of the city. 

In October, 1761, a governor's commission arrived 
from England for General Robert Monckton, who was 
then commanding the forces on Staten Island. Monck- 
ton was a careless young soldier, devoted to his profes- 
sion, and somewhat profligate withal, but his appoint- 
ment was not distasteful to the people, many of whom 
were enemies to Golden. On the 2«6th, he published his 
commission at the Gity Hall, declaring that, as for 
instructions, he had none, and hoped never to liave any ; 
an announcement especially pleasing to the citizens, to 
whom the word was a signal for rebellion. On the 30th, 
the usual freedom of the city, with the accompanying 
gold box, was presented to the governor by the corpora- 
lion, and graciously I'eceived. The new Assembly, who 



39C HISTORT OF THE 

detested Golden, gave Monckton a warm reception, and 
his administration opened auspiciously. 

Affairs now seemed to be gliding on smoothly and 
everything promised peace and prosperity. After a long 
and tiresome contest, the English government had con- 
ceded to the colonies many of the representative rights 
which they demanded, the permanent revenue was no 
longer insisted on, the citizens were permitted for the 
most part to tax themselves, and the province was 
steadily growing in importance. The main aggressions 
still continued, for the governors disclaimed all jurisdic- 
tion over the waters, and the naval officers were petty 
sovereigns in their own right, forcing all colonial vessels 
to lower their flags in token of homage, boarding them 
and impressing their men, and firing on them at the 
slightest provocation. But the citizens had faith in the 
future redressal of all these grievances; despite their 
mutinous demonstrations, their loyalty still remained 
unshaken, and a separation from the mother-country 
was a treason of which even the boldest had not dared 
to dream. The rights of English subjects — the same 
Avhich were enjoyed by their fellow-countrymen on the 
other side of the water under a limited monarchy — were 
all that they claimed, and had these been judiciously 
conceded, England might long have continued to wear 
America as the brightest jewel in her crown. The city 
had increased to some fourteen thousand inhabitants, its 
streets were constantly encroaching on the waste land, 
public edifices were springing up here and there, and the 
spirit of commercial enterprise was fast gaining ground, 
despite the harsh restrictions imposed upon colonial 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 397 

commerce by the arbitrary Board of Trade. Grievances 
enough were still existing, yet the political horizon was 
calmer than it had been for many years. It was a 
deceitful calm ; the thunders of the coming tempest 
were gathering in the distance, and preparing to burst 
with blighting force upon the doomed city. 

Not many days after his accession, Monckton received 
orders to repair with his forces to the Island of Mar- 
tinique ; and he accordingly set sail on the 15th of 
November, leaving Golden again in command at New 
York. The expedition proved successful, the island was 
captured with scarce a show of resistance, and Monckton 
soon returned to his government. 

During this year, the old plan of lighting the streets 
by lanterns suspended from the windows was definitely 
abandoned, and public lamps and lamp-posts were 
erected in the principal streets which were lighted at the 
public expense. Laws were passed, regulating the prices 
of provisions, some of which are worthy of being quoted 
as affording an idea of the standard of the times. Beef 
was sold at fourpence-halfpenny per pound ; pork, at 
livepence-halfpenny ; veal, from fourpence-halfpenny 
to sixpence ; butter at fifteen pence per pound, and 
milk at six coppers per quart. An assize of bread had 
been established from the earliest times, varying every 
two or three months in proportion to the rise or fall of 
flour ; at this time a loaf of one pound twelve ounces 
sold for four coppers. 

In 1763, Dr. Johnson, the first president of King's 
College, tendered his resignation, and Dr. Cooper was 
chosen in his stead. Soon after, a bequest of twelve 



398 HISTORY OF THE 

liundred volumes was made to the institution by Dr. Bris- 
tow of England, which, added to a collection which had 
been bequeathed to it in 1757 by Joseph Murray, 
formed the foundation for a substantial library. The 
graduates at this year's commencement were Messrs. Cuy- 
ler, Depeyster, Livingston, Hoffman, TVilkins, Bayard, 
Verplanck, Marston, and Watts ; all names which have 
grown old in the history of the city. In the May com- 
mencement of the following year, held at St. George's 
Chapel, John Jay, then a youth of nineteen, won his 
maiden honors, and first became a candidate for the 
public favor in a dissertation on the blessings of peace 
— a theme prophetic of his future career. 

In the following month, Sandy Hook lighthouse was 
lighted for the first time. About the same time, a ferry 
was established between Paulus Hook, now Jersey City, 
and Miesier's Dock, just opposite on the New York 
shore ; a convenience which had long been needed, and 
which proved a great accommodation to the people of 
New Jersey. Another ferry was also established 
between Staten Island and Bergen. Considerable 
improvement, indeed, had been made in travelling 
arrangements ; a mail Avent regularly twice a week from 
New York to Philadelphia, and packet-boats and stages 
plied between the same places, making the journey in 
the space of three days. These packet-boats run from 
the Battery to Perth Amboy, where a stage-wagon 
received the goods and passengers and conveyed them 
to Burlington. Here they were again transferred to a 
packet-boat, and thus at length reached the place of their 
destination. The journey was also frequently performed 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 399 

by crossing the bay in a scow to Staten Island, and tlience 
to the Jersey shore, then taking the inland route across 
the intermediate rivers to the Quaker City. Another 
route was now established by the way of Paulus Hook, 
whence travellers made their way over the Jersey 
marshes to the Hackensack River, and blowing a horn, 
which hung against a tree, summoned a ferryman to 
carry them across the stream ; then, journeying in short 
stages to the Passaic, the Raritan, the Delaware, and the 
Schuylkill, were ferried across in the same primitive 
manner, and arrived in three days at Philartlelphia. 
Such were the simple modes of travelling in the olden 
time. 

In 1766, the Methodist denomination was first organ- 
ized in the city by Philip Embury and others, and in 
1767 the first chux'ch of this sect was erected upon the 
site of the present one in John, near Nassau street, 
and, like it, christened Wesley Chapel. Several new 
streets were opened and regulated about the same time, 
among others. Cliff street and Park place. For the 
better prevention of fires, an ordinance was passed 
directing that all the roofs in the city should be covered 
with slate or tiles. For some years, however, tiles alone 
were used, the first building roofed with slate being, it is 
said, the City Hotel in Broadway, erected about 1794. 

A riot of the British soldiers about this time occasioned 
some excitement in the city. These worthies conceived 
the sudden freak of setting the prisoners free, and 
marching to the new jail, now the HaU of Records, they 
broke open the door and demanded the keys of the 
keeper. These being i-efused them, they fired througb 



100 HISTORY OF THE 

the door, grazing the ear of Major Rogers, one of their 
officers who had been imprisoned for debt and whose 
release was really the chief object of their attack ; then, 
forcing the door, they told the prisoners that they were 
at liberty, and attenapted to carry off their major in 
triumph. The prisoners not seeming disposed to quit 
the jail, the soldiers attempted to drive them out by force, 
and were only stopped by the arrival of the city militia, 
who had been summoned in haste to the scene of the 
combat. The riot was soon quelled and some of the 
offendere arrested, who declared, upon trial, that they 
had been instigated by Rogers ; the affair, however, 
was passed lightly by, like most of the offences of the 
British soldiery. 

But we have anticipated events. The deceitful calm 
of 1762 became strangely troubled ere the end of the 
year, and in 1763, the clouds gathered thickly in the 
horizon, foreboding the coming tempest. Towards the 
close of the last-named year, Monckton abandoned the 
government for more congenial pursuits, and returned to 
England, leaving Cadwallader Golden again at the head 
of affairs. The sequel of his administration is too 
important to be introduced at the close of a chapter. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



401 




86 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



i03 







CHAPTER XIV, 



Passage of the Stamp Act — Organization of the Sons of Liberty — First Colonial Congress 
in the City of New York— Non-Importation Agreement of the Merchants — Repeal of 
the Stamp Act — The Liberty Pole — Tax on Tea. 



Cadwallader Golden had truly taken the hehn of pub- 
Uc afifairs in the face of a gathering tempest. The 
contest between Great Britain and the colonies was fast 
drawing on. The people were daily growing more 
bitter against their rulers, while the latter grew more 
persistent in enforcing their rigorous policy. While the 
colonies had been jjoor and struggling for existence, 
Great Britain had been fully contented to let them alone. 
New Amsterdam, indeed, had owed somewhat to the 
care of its Holland patrons, but the pioneers of the 
British colonies had been driven out like Tshmaelites into 
the wilderness to contend with a rigorous climate and a 
savage foe, with no other aid than their own scanty 
resources, backed by indomitable perseverance and 
courage. But no sooner had the Dutch settlement 
grown, through the industry of its founders, into a rich 
and flourishing province, than England contrived by 



406 HISTORY OF THE 

mingled force and intrigue to wrest it from the hands of 
its rightful owners ; then, consolidating the colonies and 
establishing over them a government of her own, she 
wrung from them a rich revenue in the shape of im^aosts 
and taxes, and compelled them to support and to be 
ruled by adventurers of her own choosing, whose sole 
interest in public affairs lay in the amount of money that 
could be extorted imder divers pretexts from the purses 
of the people. 

The truth is that Great Britain contemptuously 
regarded the colonists as I'ich barbarians, the chief end 
of whose existence was to furnish an ample revenue to 
the mother-country. Their interests were wholly disi-e- 
garded in the government councils, and the restrictions 
imposed on them were rigorous in the extreme. The 
English parliament claimed the right of regulating the 
trade of the colonies, and, under cover of this pretext, 
levied heavy duties upon imports, ostensibly for the pur- 
pose of defraying custom-house expenses, and, at the 
same time, sedulously suppressed all attempts at home 
manufactures. By a series of navigation acts, the colo- 
nists were forbidden to trade with any foreign country, 
or to export to England any merchandise of their own 
in any but English vessels. The country was full of iron, 
but not an axe or a hammer could be manufactured by 
the inhabitants without violating the law. Beaver was 
abundant, but to limit its manufacture, no hatter was 
permitted to have more than two apprentices, and not a 
hat could be sold from one colony to another. Of the 
wool which was sheared in such abundance from the 
flocks, not a yard of cloth could be manufactured except 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 407 

for private use, nor a pound exported from one town to 
another ; but the raw material must all be sent to Eng- 
land to be manufactured there, then to come back as 
imported cloths, laden with heavy duties. Imposts were 
also levied upon sugar, molasses, and all articles of 
foreign luxury imported into the colonies, and America 
was, in fact, regarded only as a place from which to raise 
money. 

Notwithstanding, the colonists had patiently submitted 
to this manifest injustice. They had evaded the pay- 
ment of the duties by living frugally and dispensing with 
the luxuries which could only be obtained at such a cost. 
They had accepted the royal governors, profligate and 
imbecile as they often were, and had contented them- 
selves with opposing their unjust exactions. In the 
French and Indian wars, they had acted nobly, and by 
lavish expenditure of their blood and treasure, had 
secured to England the possession of a rich and long- 
coveted territory. These wars, which had added such 
lustre to the crown of Great Britain, and had secured 
the broad lands of Canada to her domain, had cost the 
colonies thirty thousand of their bravest soldiers, and left 
them burdened with a debt of thirteen milUons of pounds. 
But, insatiable in her desires, in return for this, she 
required still more. The country which had been able 
to contribute so largely in the intercolonial wars, had 
not, she thought, been taxed to the utmost, and, in order 
to wring from it a still larger revenue, new means were 
proposed by the British ministry for establishing a sys- 
tem of parliamentary taxation — a right which the colo- 
nists had ever persistently denied. 



408 HISTORY OF THE 

In 1763, it was proposed by Lord Grenville, then 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, to raise a permanent rev- 
enue from the colonies by direct taxation ; to be accom- 
plished by taxing various articles of foreign produce, and 
by establishing stamp duties in the Anglo-American 
possessions. It was also proposed to maintain a stand- 
ing army of ten thousand men, ostensibly for the defence 
of the colonies, but in reality to overawe them and 
coerce them to obedience. The following year, Lord 
Grenville became prime-minister, and these schemes 
were brought before the notice of parliament. It was 
immediately decided that the mother country had an 
undoubted right to tax her colonies, and, though the 
passage of the stamp act was delayed for a season, a 
sugar act was passed at once, which, while it lessened 
the duties formerly imposed upon sugar and molasses, 
levied new taxes on articles hitherto free, and gave 
increased power to the admiralty courts and the royal 
collectors of customs. 

The news of these proceedings fell hke a thunderbolt 
upon the colonists, and they rose to a man in open 
opposition to this new tyranny. Meetings were held 
throughout all the colonies, and petitions forwarded to 
the parliament, protesting against the proposed stamp 
duties and praying for the repeal of the recent sugar act. 
New York was foremost in these demonstrations. On 
the 18th of March, 1764, the Assembly adopted and 
forwarded a memorial to the ministry, protesting against 
this invasion of their rights. But this document was 
couched in terms so decided that no member of the syc- 
ophantic parliament was found bold enough to present it, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 409 

and the daring pi'ovince was afterwards forced to pay 
the penalty for this and other acts of audacity in the 
total suspension of legislative power. The petitions of 
the sister colonies, feebler in tone, were received and 
considered, then rejected by parliament ; and on the 22d 
of March, 1765, the celebrated Stamp Act was finally 
passed. By the provisions of this act, all legal and mer- 
cantile documents and contracts, newspapers, pamphlets, 
almanacs, etc., were required to be written or printed on 
stamped paper, upon which a duty was imposed, and 
which was to be sold only by agents appointed by the 
British government. 

The news of these arbitrary enactments reached New 
York earl}' in April, where it was received with the 
deepest indignation. Copies of the Stamp Act with a 
death's head aiExed were hawked about the streets 
under the title of " The Folly of England and the Ruin 
" of America." The citizens assembled, and resolved 
that no stamped paper should be used among them. On 
the 21st of September, a new paper, called the Consti- 
tutional Courant, made its appearance, beai-ing for its 
device a snake divided into eight pieces, with the motto, 
"Join or Die," and the device was caught up and re- 
peated from one end of the country to the other."'' 



* The appearance of this paper, which was circulated largely in the city, excited 
great commotion, and efforts were made by the governor and council to discover 
the author and printer, but without success. It was a half sheet of medium size, 
with the imprint, "Printed by Andrew Marvel, at the sign of the Bribe Refused, or 
" Constitution Hill, North America, and containing matters interesting to Liberty, 
" and in nowise repugnant to loyalty," and was dated Saturday, September 21, 1765. 
The device occupied the centre of the title. It was really printed at Parker's print- 
ing house in Burlington, X. J., by William fioilihud, the fictitious Andrew Marvel. 



410 HISTORY OF THE 

Nor was this the first demonstration of the spirit of 
the citizens. In tlie preceding spring, they had given 
his majesty's officers some prehminary lessons which 
should have warned them of the temper of the men 
with whom the)' had to deal. The system of impress- 
ment was still in vogue, and the naval officers regarded 
American sailors as lawful prey. In April, 1764, 
the ship Prince George arrived from Bristol, and the 
sailors, seeing the Garland man-of-war lying in the har- 
bor, took possession of the ship and steered uj) the bay. 
No sooner were they perceived by the Garland, than a 
•boat was dispatched to board the vessel and bring back 
some new recruits for his majesty's service. The sailors 
were armed and in readiness for their visitors, who 
were beaten off with little difficulty. Seeing the defeat 
of his men, the captain of the Garland opened a fire on 
the merchantman, and sent another boat's crew to the 
assistance of the first, but the sailors triumphantly pur- 
sued their way, and brought their vessel safely into the 
harbor, while their discomfited assailants returned to the 
man-of-war, vowing revenge on the audacious rebels. 

Aggressions of this sort, in truth, were frequent, and 
one, which occurred in the ensuing July, aroused the 
populace to a public demonstration. Four fishermen 
who suppHed the New York markets were seized by 
a press-gang, and carried aboard a tender from Halifax, 
then lying in the harbor. The next morning, the captain 
came on shore in his barge, but no sooner had the boat 
touched the shore, than it was seized by the people, who 

But a single number was issued ; a continuance was never intended. — See Isaiah 
nomas' " History of Printinij," vol. ii p. 322. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 411 

bore it off in triumph to their rallying-place, the Com- 
mons. The terrified officer offered at once to release the 
fishermen, and, going to the Coffee-House, hastily wrote 
an order for their release. Armed with this paper, a 
party of the Sons of Liberty repaired to the tender and 
soon returned in triumph with the prisoners ; but, in the 
meantime, the people had burnt the barge. The city 
magistrates, who had vainly endeavored to restrain the 
populace, met in the afternoon to take cognizance of the 
affair, but no one knew anything of the authors of the 
mischief. The magistrates did not press the investiga- 
tion, and the affair ended satisfactorily to all but the 
unlucky captain of the tender. Yet the British ministry 
failed to profit by these lessons, and in the face of such 
marked and spirited demonstrations, dared to pass an 
act which could not fail to root out all lingering affection 
for the mother country from the hearts of the colonists, 
and esti-ange them from her forever. 

The 1st of November was the day appointed for the 
Stamp Act to take effect. The stamps were to be pre- 
pared in England, then sent to agents in the colonies 
accredited by parliament to receive them. James 
McEvers was appointed Stamp Distributor for New York. 
These agents at once became objects of distrust to the 
people, who were resolved that this distribution never 
should take place. The association of the Sons of Liberty, 
founded in the stirring days of the Zenger trial by Wil- 
liam Smith, William Livingston and John Morin Scott, 
for the protection of popular rights, threatened by the 
attempt of Cosby to make the judges and council sub- 
servient to the crown by issuing their commissions " dur- 



412 HISTORTOFTHE 

" ing the pleasure of the king," instead of " during good 
" behavior " as before, now revived, and circulated its 
principles by means of colj^orteurs and auxiliary associa- 
tions throughout the entire middle and eastern colonies. 
Of this association, Isaac Sears, John Lamb, Alexander 
McDougall, Marinus Willett, Gershom Mott, Francis 
Lewis, Hugh Hughes, William Wiley, Thomas Robinson, 
Flores Bancker, and Edward Laight were the leaders, 
all men of tried patriotism and stanch courage. Through 
their London correspondent, Nicholas Ray, they 
received intelligence of the movements of the British 
parliament, and thwarted them by every means in their 
power. The Assemblies, on their part, projected a 
general union of the colonies for mutual protection, and 
summoned a congress of delegates from the several 
provinces to meet at New York on the 7th of October, 
1765, to consult together in respect to the proposed con- 
federation. 

On the day appointed, the first colonial congress, con- 
sisting of twenty-eight delegates from New York, Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, South 
Carolina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, 
assembled for deliberation in the City Hall in Wall street. 
The Assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina having 
adjourned before the adoption of the measure, no depu- 
tation was in attendance from either of these colonies, 
though they sympathized warmly with the objects of the 
meeting. Robert R. Livingston, John Cruger, Philip 
Livingston, William Bayard, and Leonard Lispenard 
composed the New York delegation. Previously to the 
meeting, a deputation waited on Lieutenant-Governor 



CITTOFNEWYORK. 413 

Golden to solicit his sympathy and aid. " Your con- 
"gress is unconstitutional, unprecedented and unlawful, 
"and I shall give you no countenance," was his sole 
reply, as he ordered the fortifications to he strength- 
ened, and everything to be put in readiness for the 
reception of the stamps. 

Nothing daunted by this harsh repulse, the congress 
commenced their deliberations. Timothy Ruggles of 
Massachusetts was chosen president. The session lasted 
three weeks, during which time a declaration of rights 
was adopted, embodying the claims and grievances of 
the colonies. First enunciating the principle that taxa- 
tion without representation was tyranny, the daring 
colonists went on to prove, that, as distance rendered 
this representation impossible to them in the English 
parliament, this right was vested only in the colonial 
legislatures ; and therefore that the Stamp Act, with 
all others of its kind, was a tyrannical grievance which 
at once must be abohshed. A respectful address to 
the king and a memorial to both houses of parliament 
was drawn up and signed by most of the members. 

The papers of the day, both royalist and democratic, 
were fiUed with inflammatory articles. Handbills were 
circulated among the people by the Sons of Lil^erty, 
and the New York Gazette, or Weekly Pod Boy, now 
published by John Holt,* became the vehicle of the 



* At this time, three papers were issued in the city; the New York Gazette, or 
Weekly Post Boy, established by James Parker upou the discontinuance of Brad- 
ford's paper in January, 1742-3. and now published by John Holt ; the New York 
Mercury, first i.ssued in August, 1752, by Hugh Gaine; and the New York Gazette, 
published in February, 1759, by William Woymau. In November of the following 
year, Parker resumed the pubUcation of the Gazette and Post Boy, and continued 



414 HISTORY OF THE 

popular party. On the morning of the 31st of October, 
the day before that on which the obnoxious act was to 
take effect, the last-named journal made its appearance 
in mourning, headed by the following prologue : 



" A Funeral Lamentation on the 

DEATH OF LIBERTY, 

Who finally Expires on this 

31st of October, in the year of our Lord MDCCLXV^ 

And of our Slavery 

L" 



The discourse which followed was worthy of the 
opening. In the evening, the merchants of the city 
who were engaged in the importation of English goods 
met at Burns' Coffee House, late the Atlantic Gardens, 
and adopted the following resolutions : 

1. To import no goods from England until the Stamp 
Act be repealed. 

2. To countermand all orders already sent for spring 
goods. 

3. To sell no goods from England on commission. 



it until liis death in mO; wliile Holt issued a new paper under the title of the 
New YorJi Journal, or General Advertiser, which remained the orgau of the Liberty 
Party until the capture of the city in 1776. Holt then removed to Esopus, where he 
set up his press; then, upon the burning of the village in October, 1777, he trans- 
ferred it to Poughkeepsie, where he continued its publication until the close of the 
war. In the autumn of 1783, it was again printed in the city of New York under 
the title of the Independent Gazette, or the Sew York Journal Revived. Upon the 
death of Holt, m the following year, the paper was continued by his widow and 
Eleazer Oswald until January, 1787, when it passed into the hands of Thomas 
Greenleaf, who merged it into two papers — a weekly, entitled G^-eenUaf's New Tork 
Journal and Patriotic Register, and a daily, with the title of the New York Journal 
and Daily Patriotic Register, afterwards the Argus, or Greenleafs Ne'.o Daily 
Advertiser. Such was the origin of tlie lirst daily paper of New York. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



415 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 417 

4.. To abide by these resolutions until they shall be 
rescinded at a general meeting called for the purpose. 

These resolutions were signed by more than two hun- 
dred merchants. The retailers, on their part, bound 
themselves to buy no goods of any person that should be 
shipped after the first day of January unless the Stamp 
Act should be repealed. To the merchants of N'ew York 
city belongs the credit of having been the first to sacrifice 
their commercial interests to the cause of liberty. At 
the same meeting, a non-importation association was 
organized, and a committee appointed, consisting of John 
Lamb, Isaac Sears, William Wiley, Gershom !Mott and 
Thomas Robinson — all prominent members of the Sons 
of Liberty — to correspond with the other colonies with a 
view to the universal adoption of similar measures. A 
reward of five hundred pounds was offered for the detec- 
tion of any villain who should presume to make use of 
the stamped paper, on which the law required that every 
valid instrument should be drawn — marriage licenses, 
business contracts, shipping clearances and legal docu- 
ments of all kinds. 

On the 23d of October, 1765, while the congress was 

still in session, the stamps arrived from England in a 

ship commanded by Captain Davis, but the accredited 

stamp distributor was nowhere to be found ; and, not 

daring to retain them on board his own ship, the captain 

transferred them to a man-of-war lying in the harbor. 

Fearing the fury of the excited populace, McEvers, 

a few days before, had resigned his commission to the 

Ueutenant-governor. " McEvers is intimidated, but I 

" am not afraid, and the stamps shall be delivered in 
21 



418 HISTORY OF THE 

'due time," said Golden, as he ordered them to bo 
brought on shore and deposited in the fort for safety. 
But so great was the fear inspired by the people that no 
official dared touch the papers, and after some delay 
they were finally conveyed by Captain Davis to the 
governor's house in Fort George : and on the 31st of 
October, while the patriots were threatening vengeance 
on all who should dare to distribute the papers. Golden 
took paths to carry the Stamp Act into effect. 

No sooner had the stamps been landed than handbills 
appeared as if by magic in the streets, forbidding any 
one at his peril to make use of the obnoxious paper. 
In the evening, the citizens assembled in large numbers 
and marched to the fort, where they were ordered by 
the governor to disperse. Without heeding his com- 
mand, they fell into line and marched in silence througli 
the principal streets of the city— a funeral cortege, 
mourning their lost liberty — then separated at midnight 
and returned quietly to their homes. 

The next day was the dreaded first of November — the 
day on which the British parliament had decreed that 
the Stamp Act should take effect. In the course of the 
day, more of the mysterious placards appeared in the 
streets, but the day wore away without other demon- 
stration than the appearance from time to time of more 
of the mysterious handbills, posted by an unknown 
hand. The grand celebration of the festival was 
deferred until evening. Soon after sunset, two organized 
companies, composed in great part of the Sons of 
Liberty, appeared in the streets. The first of these 
repaired directly to the Commons where they proceeded 



CIT5r OF NEW YORK, 419 

to erect a gallows, on which was suspended an effigy of 
Cadwallader Coldeu, with a stamped paper in his hand, 
a drum at his back, and a label on his breast bearing the 
inscription, The Rebel Drummer of 1745.* By his side 
hung an effigy of the devil with a boot in his hand, 
designed as a satire upon the Earl of Bute, at whose 
instigation they had the charity to believe that he had 
acted. The other party, meanwhile, proceeded to the 
fort, carrj'ing an effigy of Golden, seated in a chair, and 
attended by torch-bearers. The procession was followed 
by a crowd of citizens. They broke open the stable of 
the lieutenant-governor, and, taking out his chariot, 
placed the effigy in it, then returned in triumph to rejoin 
their comrades, who were just raising their gallows to 
take up their march to the city. Both companies imme- 
diately mingled into one, the strictest orders were given 
that not a word should be spoken or a stone thrown, and 
the long procession set out for the fort, where they found 
the soldiers drawn up on the ramparts ready to receive 
them, and the muzzles of the cannon aimed directly at 
their ranks. But, notwithstanding this threatening 
demonstration. Gage, who was then the British com- 
mander, prudently restrained his troops from firing, well 
knowing that their first volley would be followed by the 
instant destruction of the fort. The rioters knocked at 
the gate for admission, which, of course, was denied 
them ; then, proceeding to the Bowling Green, they tore 
down the wooden palisades about it, and kindling a fire. 



' Colden had served as a drummer in 1745 in tlie array of the Pretender, hence 
.be allusion. 



420 HISTORY OF THE 

burned carriage, gallows, effigies and devil. Hitherto 
the proceedings had been conducted with the utmost 
decorum. But the fury of the populace could be 
restrained no longer, and, despite the remonstrances of 
the more moderate of the Sons of Liberty, an excited 
party broke loose from their companions, and, proceed- 
ing to Vauxhall, on the corner of "Warren and Green- 
wich streets, at that time occupied by Major James of 
the British army, a stanch friend of the Stamp Act, who 
had incensed the people by some insolent expressions, 
broke open the house, rifled it of its rich furniture, 
kindled another bonfire and consumed the whole in the 
flames. Not an article was spared, with the exception 
of the royal colors, which were borne away as a trophy 
by the party — pictures, mathematical instrument!?, 
books, curtains, carpets and furniture—all were involved 
in the general ruin. Major James was afterwards 
indemnified for his losses by the corporation, but, 
regarding the act in the light of a just punishment, they 
refused the same satisfaction to Golden. 

The next evening, the people assembled again upon 
the Commons, and determined to march to the fort and 
to demand the delivery of the stamped paper. But 
before this resolution could be carried into effect. Golden 
wisel}^ determined to withdraw from the contest, and 
issued a bulletin declaring that he would have nothing 
at all to do with the stamps, but would leave them to 
Sir Henry Moore, the new governor, now hourly 
expected, to dispose of them as he pleased upon his 
arrival. In the next issue of the Gazette and Post Boy 
appeared the following notice : 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 421 

"The governor acquainted Judge Livingston, the 
■' mayor, Mr. Beverly Robinson and Mr. John Stevens 
" this morning; being Monday the ith. of November, that 
'• he would not issue nor suffer to be issued any of the 
" EtamjDS now in Fort George. 

(Signed) "Robert R.Livingston, 

" John Cruger, 
" Beverly Robinson, 
" John Stevens." 

The following notice also appeared without si-gna- 

I ures : 

" The freemen, freeholders and inhabitants of this 
" city, being satisfied that the stamps are not to be issued, 
" are determined to keep the peace of the city, at all 
" events, except that they should have other cause of 
" complaint." 

But this anonymous communication failed to express 
the sentiments of the people. On the following evening, 
pursuant to a call issued a few days before, an armed 
body of citizens assembled on the Commons, resolved to 
storm the fort and obtain forcible possession of the papers. 
Alarmed at this demonstration, the governor, who had 
been fruitlessly negotiating with Captain Kennedy of the 
ship of war Coventry, then lying in the harbor, to receive 
the stamps on board his vessel, consented to yield, and 
delivered them from the fort gate to the mayor and cor- 
poration, who had previously dernanded them at his 



422 HISTORY OF THE 

bands, promising to be accountable for their safe-keeping, 
accompanied with a letter which we transcribe entire : 

" Fort Geoege, Nov. 5th, 1705. 

" Mr. Mayor and Gentlemen of the Corporation : In 

' consequence of your earnest request, and engaging to 

' make good all such sums as might be raised by the 

' destruction of the stamps sent over for the use of this 

' province that shall be lost, destroyed, or carried out of 

' the province, and in consequence of the unanimous 

' advice of his majesty's council, and the concurrence of 

' the commander-in-chief of the king's forces, and to 

' prevent the effusion of blood and the calamities of a 

' civil war which might ensue from my withholding 

' them from you, I now deliver to you the packages of 

"stamped paper and parchments that were deposited in 

"my hands in this his majesty's fort ; and I doubt not 

" that you will take the charge and care of them con- 

" formably to your engagement to me. 

" I am, with great regard, gentlemen, 
" Tour most ob'dt humble servant, 

" Cadwallader Golden.'' 

The mayor and corporation received the stamps amid 
the huzzas of the people, returning to the governor the 
following receipt : 

" Received from the Honorable Cadwallader Golden, 
" Esq„, his majestj^'s lieutenant-general and commander- 
" in-ohief of the province of New York, seven packages 
" containing stamped jiapers and parchments, all marked 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 423 

" 'No. 1, James McEvers, I. M. E., New York,' which 
"we promise, in behalf of tlie corporation of the city of 
" New York, to take charge and care of, and to be 
" accountable in case they shall be destroyed or carried 
■' out of the province. Witness our hands. 

(Witness) "John Crcger, Mayor, 

" L. F. Carey, 

" Major to the GOth Reg't. 
" James Farquahar." 

The formalities of the transfer having thus been con- 
cluded amid the ironical cheers of the multitude, the 
Sons of Liberty escorted the civic authorities to the City 
Hall, and, after seeing the stamps deposited there iu 
safet}', quietly dispersed. It was not long before a new 
outrage roused them to action. Previously to the 
delivery of the papers, the cannon in the king's yard and 
on Copsey's battery had been spiked, as was alleged, 
by the orders of Golden, to prevent the people from 
making use of them in case of an attack upon the fort. 
It was never clearly proved that the governor was guilty 
of this charge, but the majority of the people were fidly 
persuaded of it at the time, and loudly expressed their 
indignation. A petition was even addressed to the 
Assembly, entreating them to deduct the amount of 
damages from the governor's salary ; but the request, 
which came from an unknown source, was at once 
rejected, and a reward was offered for the discovery of 
the writers. The excitement, however, continued for 
some time, the citizens inveighed bitterly against Colden 
as the author of the mischief, and even burned his 



424 m STORY OF the 

effigy, seated on a spiked cauuon, one night on the 
Commons. 

The Committee of Correspondence that had been 
appointed on the 31st of October wasted no time in 
idleness, but at once addressed circulars to the merchants 
of the sister-cities, inviting them to join in the non-in- 
tercourse agreement as the best method of frustrating 
the designs of Great Britain. These unhesitatingly 
answered to their summons, and the suspension of trade 
soon became universal. To lessen the inconveniences 
felt by the citizens, a fair was opened a little below the 
Exchange for the sale of articles of home manufacture, 
and the citizens soon learned to appreciate the internal 
resources of their own country, and to sacrifice foreign 
luxuries on the shrine of patriotism. To wear silks and 
broadcloths was accounted a disgrace, the wealthiest and 
most fashionable appeared clad in the homespun linsey- 
woolsey, and the grand-dame: cheerfully exchanged the 
once indispensable tea and coffee for decoctions made 
from the fragrant wild herbs of the American soil. Docu- 
ments continued to be written and newspapers printed 
on unstamped paper, and betrothed couples, dispensing 
with the now hateful licenses, were proclaimed in church 
by bans as in olden time. 

Nor was this all ; the Committee of Correspondence, 
impressed with the idea that union was power, framed 
articles of confederation banding the colonies together 
in resistance to the Stamp Act, and providing for the 
assembling of a general congress to concert measures for 
future action in case the British ministry should persist 
m enforcing it. These articles were sent to the eastern 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 425 

and southern colonies for their concurrence, by whom 
thoy were at once unanimously adopted. 

On the 11th of November, the corporation tendered 
an address to General G-agc, the commander-in-chief of 
the British forces in America, congratulating him upon 
the restoration of the city to tranquillity and its preser- 
vation from the horrors of a civil war, and imputing the 
result to his prudence in not heightening the spirit of 
discontent already so prevalent in the colonies, by firing on 
the citizens on the night of the riot. In truth, whether 
trom prudence or otherwise, a remarkable spirit of for- 
bearance had been manifested, for the guns of the fort 
had been turned upon the rioters during the whole of the 
proceedings on the Bowling Green, and, with the aid of 
the ships of war then lying in the harbor, nothing would 
have been easier than to have accomplished the destruc- 
tion of the citj'. It is true that the act would have called 
forth a terrible retribution ; but that was in the future, 
while the chances for an easy capture lay close at hand. 
Gage curtly replied to this bold address, that the spirit 
which so lately bad been shown among them had been 
carried almost to open rebellion, and recommended them 
to show their respect to his majesty less in words than in 
deeds, and to use their best efforts to calm the madness 
of the people, and to bring them back to a sense of the 
duty which they owed their superiors. The two parties 
were now generally distinguished as Whigs and Tories, 
names originally imported from England ; but the New 
York patriots still continued to retain their favorite 
jppellation of Sons of Liberty. 

About this time, the ship Minerva, Captain Tillet, 



426 n I s T R Y OF the 

arrived in tlie harbor, bringing a second shipment of 
stamps and a new stamp distributoi- in the person of 
Peter De Lancey, jr., who had been appointed in the 
stead of the recreant McEvers. With her also came 
the newly-appointed governor, Sir Henry Moore, who at 
once won the affections of the people by declaring that 
he would have nothing at all to do with the obnoxious 
papers. The stamps were deposited with the rest in the 
City Hall, and a Committee of the Sons of Liberty 
waited on De Lancey, and warned him that his wisest 
course would be to resign. De Lancey yielded with a 
good grace to the necessity, and, protesting that, when 
he received the appointment, he was ignorant of the 
objections of the people, resigned his commission and 
published a disclaimer in the papers of the day. A 
formal renunciation was also exacted of McEvers, and 
the city was thus freed from these dreaded officials. But 
the Sons of Liberty went even further ; on learning that 
Zachary Hood, one of the stamp distributors for Mary- 
land, had fled for protection to Governor Colden, and 
had taken shelter at Flushing, on Long Island, they sent 
a deputation to compel him to resign, and to abjure his 
office publicly by oath— a service for which they afterwards 
received the grateful thanks of their Maryland brethren. 
Delighted with the favorable disposition evinced by 
the new governor, the civic authorities gave him a cor- 
dial reception, and the Sons of Liberty held a grand 
mass meeting in the Commons, now the rallying-place 
of liberty, where they erected a pyramid and kindled 
bonfires in his honor. They had previously tendered 
him a congratulatory address, which had been received 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 427 

with favor. In fact, everything augured well for the good 
intentions of the new governor. Anxious to conciliate 
his subjects, he ordered the fortifications whicli had been 
commenced by Golden at the fort and the battery to be 
discontinued, and declared that he did not intend to 
meddle witli the enforcement of tlie Stamj) Act. The 
Assembly, which met on the day of his arrival, confirmed 
the action of their committee in the colonial congress, 
and adopted resolutions of the same import. 

About the same time, the ship Hope, commanded by 
Captain Christian Jacobson, arrived from London, and 
the fact was chronicled with the comment that Captain 
Jacobson was the first who luid had the honor of refusing 
to bring stamps to America. 

On the 25th of November, the merchants met again 
at their usual place of rendezvous, and resolved to con- 
tinue their non-importation agreement, despite the 
deadly blow which it inflicted on their interests. A 
committee was also appointed to frame an address to be 
presented to the Assembly, complaining of the restric- 
tions on trade, and especially protesting against the 
appeal from the decision of juries, which Colden had 
sedulously endeavored to introduce. 

The vigilant Sons of Liberty, meanwhile, had received 
information that stamps were yet on board the Minerva, 
designed for the sister colony of Connecticut. A call 
was issued at once for the gathering of the brotherhood, 
and at midnight on the 26th, the vessel was boarded, 
but no papers were found. They had been transferred 
to another vessel. Gaining a clew to this fact from their 
brethren of Philadelphia, the patriots kept a lookout for 



428 HISTORY OF THE 

the suspicious craft, and as soon as she hove in sight, 
boarded and searched her. This time, the search was 
not in vain. Ten packages of stamps were discovered 
by the self-appointed custom-house officers, which were 
taken up to the ship-yards at the foot of Catharine street 
and burned there. Soon after, it was discovered by the 
indefatigable Sons of Liberty that a merchant of the city 
by the name of Lewis Pintard had sent a bond to Philadel- 
phia written on stamped paper. The vender of the stamp 
was immediately sought out, his house searched, and the 
stamped paper which was found there committed to the 
flames. Mr. Pintard screened himself from their ven- 
geance by taking an oath that he was ignorant at the 
time of its transmission that the bond had been written 
on stamped paper. These energetic measures elicited 
the approbation of the other colonies, and encomiums 
were lavished by the members of the sister cities on the 
gallant conduct of the patriots of New York. 

About the middle of December, Captain Blow arrived 
from Quebec, bringing with him a stamped pass from 
General Murray, the governor of Canada. This was the 
first piece of stamped paper that had appeared in the 
city. It was immediately posted up at Burns' Coffee- 
House, the general rendezvous of the Sons of Liberty, 
and gazed at by the dejected citizens as the epitaph of 
their freedom. Li the evening, a procession of patriots 
paraded the streets of the city, bearing a gallows on 
wliich were suspended three effigies — that of Lord Greu- 
rille, the author of the Stamp Act ; of Lord Colville, 
who had endeavored to enforce it by stopping colonial 
vessels ; and of General Murray, who had signed the first 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 429 

piece of stamped paper that had made its way into the 
city of New York. The march ended, the effigies were 
taken to the Commons and burned there. 

Not less energetic were the demonstrations of the other 
colonies in respect to the odious Stamp Act. Seeing the 
determined attitude of the people, the ministry at length 
determined to recede, and repealed it on the 20th of Feb- 
ruar}', 1766. On the 20th of May, the news reached New 
York, where it was received with the greatest enthusi- 
asm. On the following day, the people assembled on the 
Commons, and manifested their delight by every possible 
demonstration. Bells were rung, cannon fired, and a 
public dinner given by the civic authorities. In the 
evening, bonfires were kindled in the fields, and the whole 
city was illuminated in honor of the triumph of liberty. 

Not content with this, the patriots assembled again 
on the Commons on the 4th of June — the king's birth- 
day — for a second celebration, and Moore, hoping thus 
to strengthen their loyalty, politically encouraged them 
in their rejoicings. An ox was roasted, and twentj^-five 
barrels of strong beer were provided, with a hogshead 
of rum, and the necessary ingredients to convert the 
whole into punch. A pole was erected, about which 
were piled twenty-five cords of wood, with twelve blaz- 
ing tar-barrels suspended at the top, while at another 
part of the Commons, twenty-five cannon fired a salute, 
to the sound of which the royal standard was raised 
amid the shouts and huzzas of the excited populace. 
But the crowning event of the day was the erection of 
a pole or mast inscribed, "The King, Pitt, and Lib- 
"erty"' — a Liberty-Pole which served as the rallying- 



I'SO HISTORY OF THE 

point for many a sharp contest during the succeeding 
years, and which came to stand for a principle almost 
as dear to the New Yorkers as that of personal taxation. 
The repeal of the Stamp Act served, in the first flush 
of victory, to cover a multitude of sins. But it was not 
long before the colonists looked more closely at the con- 
ditions which surrounded it. In the first place, the 
right of Great Britain to tax the colonies was distinctly 
asserted, even by Pitt, the so-called champion of Ameri- 
can liberty. Yet, despite this, a large meeting of the 
citizens assembled at Burns' Coffee House, on the 23d of 
June, and petitioned the Assembly to erect a statue in 
honor of William Pitt. The request was granted. It 
was also determined to erect an equestrian statue of 
George III. on the Bowling Green, and a hundred 
pounds were appropriated for the purchase of a service 
of plate for John Sargent, in token of the faithful ser- 
vices which he had rendered in England as agent of the 
colonies. The statue of Pitt was of marble, and was set 
up in Wall street on the 7th of September, 1770. The 
statesman was represented in a Roman toga, with a half- 
open scroll in his right hand, on which were the words, 
Articuli Magnce Chartcc Libertatum. The left hand 
was extended, as if in the act of delivering an oration. 
The pedestal bore the inscription : "This Statue of the 
"Right Honorable William Pitt, Eai4 of Chatham, was 
" erected as a public testimony of the grateful sense the 
" colony of Xew York retains of the many eminent ser- 
" vices he rendered to America, particularly in promot- 
" ing the repeal of the Stamp Act, Anno Domini 1770." 
It did not long retain its place. After the occupation 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 431 

of the city by the British in 1776, the head and right 
hand were struck off by the soldiery, in revenge for the 
insults before offered by tlie Americans to the statue of 
George III. The headless trunk remained standing until 
after the evacuation in 1783, when it was removed to the 
Bridewell Yard. It was thence transferred to the yard 
of the Arsenal near the Collect, and finally found its way 
to the corner of Franklin street and West Broadway, 
where its headless tnink was long displayed in front of 
the basement entrance of the Museum Hotel. 

Nor did the leaden equestrian statue of George III., 
which was erected on the Bowling Green in front of Fort 
George on the 21st of August, 1770, amid the noise of 
artillery and the huzzas of the people, meet a better fate. 
In July, 1776, the night after the Declaration was read 
to the New York troops, the horse and rider ^vas thrown 
from its pedestal and dragged through the streets by the 
indignant patriots ; then run into bullets for the use of 
'he Revolutionary soldiers. The pedestal of the statue 
remained standing for some time longer, and was finally 
removed a few years after the close of the war.''' 

We have already mentioned the erection of a Liberty 

* This statue lias a curious history. Erected during the outburst of loyalty 
that followed the repeal of the Stamp Act, upon the reception in New York of 
the news of the Declaration of Independence, it was dragged from its pedestal 
by a band of patriots headed by Belden, and sent, hewed in pieces, to Litchfield, 
then the residence of Oliver Wolcott, the patriot governor of Connecticut, by 
whose wife and daughters it was run into bullets, of which the Whigs of the 
surrounding country were invited to come and take freely. In their hands, they 
did good service, killing four hundred British soldiers during the subsequent in- 
vasion of Connecticut by Governor Tryon. Forty-two thousand bullets were 
made from the statue. The saddle-cloth was sunk in a marsh opposite the 
house of Wolcott, where it was discovered a few years since by accident and ex- 



432 HISTORY OF THE 

Pole on the Commons, on the 4th of June, 1766. This 
formed the pretext for a series of outrages which kept 
the city in a perpetual ferment, and goaded on the peo- 
ple to open civil war. The British soldiers detailed for 
the protection of the city were at that time quartered in 
the barracks standing on the line of Chambers street, 
and were thus brought in daily contact with the people. 
Enraged at some triumphant expressions of the Sons of 
Liberty, on the 10th of August, a party belonging to the 
28th Regiment cut down the Liberty Pole which had 
been erected on the king's birthday. The next day, the 
citizens assembled on the Commons, and were preparing 
to erect another in its stead, when they were attacked 
by an armed party of soldiers and forced to disperse. 
Several of their number were seriously wounded, among 
whom were Isaac Sears and John Berrien, both promi- 
nent members of the Sons of Liberty. The citizens 
complained loudly of this outrage, and Theophilus 
Hardenbrook and Peter Yandervoort made affidavits 
before the mayor, charging the soldiers with having, 
without provocation, commenced the assault. But the 
conduct of the soldiers was approved by their officers, 
and their commander, Major Arthur Brown, coolly told 
the mayor that the whole charge was an utter falsehood 
and, though the affidavits were sustained by abundant 
testimony, refused to punish or even reprimand the 
offenders. The Liberty Pole was set up again by the 

humed, and, after passing tlirough various hands, was purchased by Mr. Riley 
of the Museum Hotel, where it remained for some years with the statue of Pitt, 
but was finally broken and destroyed. Some pieces of this statue are now 
(1880) in possession of the N. Y. Historical Society. 



CITY OF X E W YORK 



433 




28 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 435 

Mtizens and suffered to stand a few days longer, then 
levelled to the ground on the night of the 23d of Sep- 
tember. Before two days had passed, a third one was 
erected in its stead, and the soldiers, restrained by the 
orders of Moore, permitted it to stand without further 
molestation. 

During the whole winter, the city was harassed by 
continual outrages on the part of the soldiers. Houses 
of peaceable citizens were broken open and plundered 
under pretext of searching for proofs of rebellion. On 
one occasion, a soldier forced his way into the dwelling 
of an industrious carman, and, after wounding him 
severely with his bayonet, hamstrung his horse and thus 
deprived him of his only means of support for his family. 
No notice was taken by the officers of these aggressions ; 
on the contrary, they rather countenanced them in 
secret, and urged on the soldiers to fresh assaults, hoping 
thus to break the spirit of the people, and to awe or 
coerce them into abject submission. 

On the ISth of March, 1767, the people met on the 
Commons, and celebrated the first anniversary of the 
repeal of the Stamp Act with the greatest enthusiasm. 
This demonstration awakened the ire of the British 
soldiery, and, before morning, the Liberty Pole was again 
levelled to the ground. Nothing daunted, the next day 
the Sons of Liberty set up another and more substantial 
one, well secured with iron bands, in its place. On the 
same night, an attempt was made to destroy it, but 
without success. The next night, another attempt was 
made to blow it up with gunpowder, which also proved 
a failure. Licensed by these repeated assaults, the Sons 



436 HISTORY OF THE 

of Liberty set a strong guard around the pole. For 
three successive nights, the soldiers renewed their 
attacks, but each time were beaten off by the people. At 
length the governor, who had himself been suspected 
of secretly inciting the soldiers, intei'fered and peremp- 
torily commanded them to desist. The pole continued 
to stand, a trophy of the victory of the people, and on 
the king's birthday, which happened not long after, the 
Union flag was run up to its top, and cannon planted at 
its foot answered derisively, gun for gun, to the royal 
salute from Fort George. 

Let us return to the proceedings of the New York 
Assembly of 1761-1768, — a body which, by its daring 
acts in the cause of liberty, won for itself political mar- 
tyrdom from the British ministry and a crown of lasting 
glory from all true patriots. Through the whole of the 
eventful Stamp Act epoch, the Assembly of New York 
stood true to the interests of the country, and to its bold 
protests against the enactment of the odious Stamp Act, 
its determined attitude in the struggle which ensued, and 
most of all, its earnest advocacy of the union of the 
colonies, aided by the efforts of the vigilant Sons of 
Liberty, may be attributed much of the almost miracu- 
lous success which attended the coming struggle for 
independence. 

We have already spoken of the Declaratory Act, 
asserting the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies. 
Simultaneously with this was passed the Mutiny Act. 
requiring the citizens to furnish quarters for all the 
soldiers that might be stationed among them by the royal 
orders, and to provide them with various necessaries ; 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 437 

and Sir Homy Moore was instructed to lay the matter 
before the Assembly on his arrival, and to see that the 
troops were supplied according to the provisions of the 
Act. New York was at this time full of soldiers ; it was 
the head-quarters of the British army under General 
Gage, and new regiments of troops were daily expected. 
The people at once detected in these movements the 
fixed determination of the ministry to establish a stand- 
ing army among them — a measure utterly abhorrent to 
their spirit of independence — and refused to comply. 
The Sons of Liberty banded together in open opposition, 
and the Assembly of 17G6, to whom Moore communi- 
cated his instructions on his arrival, resolved that they 
could only legally be required to provide for soldiei-s on 
the march, and that, as there were already barracke 
enough to accommodate the soldiers then in the city, the 
requisition was wholly unnecessary for the present 
They offered, however, to appropriate a sum which had 
been left over from the appropriation of a preceding 
year, to the support of two battalions not exceeding five 
hundred men each, but absolutely refused to maintain 
any more, or to furnish vinegar, salt and liquors as the 
provisions of the act required, limiting the supplies to 
candles, bedding, fuel and cooking utensils, as actual 
necessaries of life. They also refused to indemnify 
Golden for the damages which he had sustained on the 
night of the riot, in opposition to the express commands 
of the king, alleging that he had suffered through his 
own misconduct ; though they granted Major James the 
required compensation, attributing his losses to the 
excitement of the mob. During this year, Whitehead 



438 HISTORY OF THE 

Uicks, a lawyer of the city, the descendant of a family 
of Friends who had settled in Queens County in the 
early days of the province, was chosen mayor. 

Distasteful as were these limitations to the governor, 
he was forced to receive them as the best that could be 
obtained, though he complained bitterly in his letters to 
the ministry of the ingratitude shown by the colonists 
after the gracious repeal of the Stamp Act. The 
answers brought him back a reprimand for yielding ; 
and on the 17th of November, 1766, the moi'tified gov- 
ernor communicated to the Assembly the king's positive 
refusal to receive the Limited Supply Bill, and the instruc- 
tions of Lord Shelburne in respect to their future con- 
duct. " I am ordered by his majesty," said Shelburne 
in these, "to signify to 3'ou that it is the indispensable 
" duty of his subjects in America to obey the acts of the 
"Legislature of Great Britain. The king both expects 
"and requires a due and cheerful obedience to the 
" same ; and it cannot be doubted that his majesty's 
" province of New York, after the lenity of Great Britain 
" so recently extended to America, will gratefully yield 
" a prompt submission." 

On the 15th of the following month, the Assembly 
answered this arbitrary message by another as bold and 
decisive in tone. Insisting that, bj' strict construction, 
they could only be required to supply soldiers on the 
march, they declared that they had already, by the 
rejected Supply Bill, assumed heavier burdens than 
were borne by any other colony, and declared that. 
though the)' were willing to support his majesty's gov- 
ernment, it must be in conformitv with the circumstances 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 43G 

of their constituents. " And in conclusion," said tiiey, 
" we cannot, consistently with our duty to these coti- 
" stituents, consent to put it in the power of any person, 
"whatever confidence we may have in his prudence and 
" integrity, to lay such laurdens upon them at his 
" pleasure." This bold response was forwarded to the 
king, and the Assembly was prorogued by the governor 
while waiting for an answer. 

Displeasing as was the conduct of the Assembl}' to 
the ministry-, it was almost equally so to the Sons of 
Liberty, who protested also against the Limited Supply 
Bill as an actual concession to the policy of the British 
government. But, urged on by rumors of warlike pre- 
parations in England, as well asb}' the threats and persua- 
sions of the governor, they finally yielded another point, 
and consented to grant a further appropriation of three 
thousand five hundred pounds for the preceding and three 
thousand pounds for the current year to defray the expen- 
ses of the soldiers quartered among them. This compli- 
ance, while it incensed the Sons of Liberty, was too slight 
to atone for their past audacity. Resolved to punish the 
contumacy of the daring representatives, and to humble 
their arrogance, both houses of parliament, with scarcely 
a dissenting voice, passed a law suspending the legislative 
power of the Assembly, and forbidding the governor to 
assent to any bill from them until the Mutiny Act should 
first be complied ■with. 

The news of this disfranchisement produced intense 
excitement throughout the colonies. Letters of sympa- 
thy poured in from the patriots of New England and 
the southern provinces, and the whole country was 



440 HISTORY OF THE 

roused in opposition to the flagrant injustice. T)\c 
Assembly met as usual, and passed resolutions, declar- 
ing that any suspension of colonial legislation was 
unconstitutional, and therefore null and void, and pro- 
ceeded to appoint committees and transact business as 
before. 

They had now a new grievance with which to con- 
tend — the immediate cause of the American Revolution. 
In 1767, almost simultaneously with the disfranchisement 
of the province, Charles Townshend, Chancellor of the 
Exchequer, under the ministry of William Pitt, Lord 
Chatham, had introduced a bill into parliament, imposing 
duties on all tea, glass, paper, painters' colors, and 
lead, which should henceforth be imported into the Ame- 
rican colonies. This new project for raising a revenue 
from America was strictly in conformity with the spirit 
of the Declaratory Act, and w-as unanimously adopted. 

The news of the enactment raised a new tempest in 
the city. The Sons of Liberty renewed their efforts to 
form Committees of Correspondence throughout the 
colonies, and the merchants revived the Non-importation 
Act of 1765. They also wrote letters to the merchants 
of Boston, urging them to extend the agreement of non- 
importation indefinitely until every dut}' should bo 
repealed. This agreement was subsequently entered 
into and nominally maintained by all the colonies, but, 
of all these, to quote the words of the eloquent Bancroft, 
"New York alone remained perfectly true to her 
" engagements, while the other colonies continued to 
" import nearly half as much as before." * 

* .See page 442. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 44.1 

On the 11th of February, 17G8, the recusant Assembly 
was formally dissolved by the governor, and measures 
taken to convene a new one in its stead. The governor 
had previously received instructions to take care that 
the next should be composed of less stubborn materials, 
and, whether through his secret influence or from other 
existing causes, it is certain that it proved far more 
compliant than its predecessor. In the city elections, 
the contest ran high between the lawyers and the mer- 
chants. Heretofore, the former had been most largely 
represented in the Assembly, and had come to view it 
almost as a perquisite of their profession. But the scale 
now turned in favor of the merchants, who, backed by the 
influence of the Sons of Liberty, won the election, and 
returned Isaac Low, John Cruger, John Alsop, and 
James De Lancey as representatives to the Assembly. 

The new Assembly, which convened in 1768, com- 
menced their career by following closely in the steps of 
their rebellious predecessors. Disregarding the royal 
command that they should hold no correspondence witb 
the other colonies, they received the circular of the 
Assembly of Massachusetts, entreating their cooperation 
in obtaining a redress of the common grievances, and. 
boldly protested against all interference in the matter. 
At this time, Boston was prostrate beneath the ban of 
the royal displeasure, and the citizens of New York 
warmly repaid the sympathy which had been extended to 
them in their hour of trial. The patriotic journals of the 
day teemed with eulogies of the Boston patriots and 
denunciations of their oppressors, and the effigies of the 
royal governor of Boston and his sheriff were carried in 



H2 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



procession through the streets of the city, then puWiclj 
burned on the Commons. The governor, who was really 
of a conciliatory disposition, endeavored in vain to restrain 
these demonstrations and to bring back the people to a 
sense of their loyalty. His efforts were suddenly 
checked by his death, which took place on the 11th of 
September, 1769, and threw the government again into 
the hands of Cadwallader Coldeu. 



The following letter from a resident of New England to Gov. Trnmbnll, which we extract from 
"The Sons of Liberty in New York," by Henry B. Dawson, furnishes accvirate data from official 
authority in respect to the observance of tiie non-importation agreement by ths respective 

colonies : 

" March 6, 1770. 

" .\fter all the tergivereations amongst the merchants, the trade has been this year reduced about 
"seven hundred thousand pounds, as you see by the following account, nearly as it was stated 
" last night from the custom house entries. 

•' Value of all goods exported from England to the colonies in N. America from Christmas, 1767, 
"to do., 1769, distinguishing each colony. 





1767 to 1763. 


1768 to 1769. 




£110,000 

ao9,ooo 

82,000 

56,000 

6,000 

419,000 

46,000 

6,000 

482,000 

19,000 
432,000 
476,000 


£174,000 
306,000 
29,000 
&S,000 
4,000 
207,000 
64,000 
6,000 
74,000 
19,000 
199,000 
488,000 


Carolina 


Georgia 

Hudson's Bay 

N. England 








Pennsylvania 

Virginia and Maryland 



"How forcibly would the commercial argument have appeared, had all the colonies abated Ir 
* the proportion N. York has done, who seems to have imported only the articles allowed by the 
' agreement."— [Letter of W.m S. Johnson to Gov. Jona, TrumbulL] 



HISTORY 



CITY OF NEW TOEK. 



CHAPTER XV. 
1769— ins. 



Change in the Assembly— Lord North's Administration — Removal of Taxea — Kesumption 
of Importations — Conflicts about the Liberty Pole— Battle of Golden Hill. 



It was not long before Golden, through the instrumen- 
tality of De Lancey, won over tlie members of the new 
Assembly to the interest of the royalists. They com- 
plied without much reluctance with most of the require- 
ments of the Mutiny Act, and projected another scheme 
which was viewed by the patriots with much distrust, 
as concealing some insidious snare for the liberties of the 
colonies. This was the emission of bills of credit to the 
amount of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds, to 
be loaned to the people, the interest of which was to be 
applied to the support of the colonial government. 
A grant of a thousand pounds from the treasury, 
together with a thousand more of the bills about 'to 
be issued, was made for the maintenance of the troops, 
and a strong disposition was evinced in favor of the 
royalist party. 

This new scheme for raising money excited the dis 



444 HISTORY OF THE 

trust of the people, and rumors were circulated that the 
Assembly had betrayed the country to the governor and 
the British ministry. On the 16tli of December, an 
inflammatory handbill, signed by a Son of Liberty, 
appeared, addressed to the betrayed inhabitants of the 
city. This document, which was ably and earnestly 
written, warned the people against the subtle attack 
made on their liberties by the emission of the bills of 
credit, as a scheme devised to separate the colonies ; 
and, denouncing the Assembly in no measured terms, 
closed with an invitation to the people to meet the next 
day in the fields and discuss the conduct of their 
representatives. 

The next day, a large assemblage gathered on the 
Commons. John Lamb was chosen chairman of the 
meeting. The proceedings of the Assembly were unani- 
mously disapproved, and a committee was appointed, 
with Lamb at the head, to convey the sense of the 
meeting to the Legislature. The latter received the 
deputation with courtesy, but refused to make any 
change in their policy, declaring that the law was 
satisfactory to the mass of the jjeople. On the follow- 
ing day, another handbill appeared, over the signature 
of "Legion,"* written evidently by the same hand as 

• We give this handbill verbatim. 
" To THE Public. — The spirit of the times renders it necessary for the inhabitants 
" of the city to convene, in order effectually to avert the destructive consequences of 
" the late ease inolokiocs conduct of our General Assembly, who have in opposition 
" to the loud and general voice of their constituents, the dictates of sound policy, 
" the ties of gratitude, and the glorious struggle we have engaged in for our 
" invaluable birthrights, dared to vote supplies to the troops without the least shadow 
" of a pretext for their pernicious grant. The most eligible place will be in the Fields, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 445 

the first, and openly charging the Assembly with a 
betrayal of their trust. This second attack roused the 
ire of the body ; they at once denounced the papers as 
libelous, and oftered a reward of one hundred and fifty 
pounds for the discovery of the writers, Philip Schuyler 
alone voting against it. Lamb was accused and brought 
before the bar of the House, where he boldly justified all 
that he had done, declaring that he had only exercised 
the right of every Englishman. His colleagues on the 
committee — Isaac Sears, Caspar Wistar, Alexander Mc- 
Dougall, Jacobus Van Zandt, Samuel Broome, Erasmus 
Williams and James Van Vaurk — seconded his defence, 
fearlessly avowing that they were implicated with Lamb, 
and equally ready to answer for their conduct, and the 
charge, which had been made at the instance of De 
Noyellis, was finally dismissed by the Assembly. But 
they did not relax their efforts to discover the authors 
of the so-called libels. The type afforded a clue to the 
printing- oQice of James Parker, who was at once 
arrested, confined in the fort, and threatened with the 
loss of his place as Secretary of the Post-office, unless 
he would reveal the name of the writer. The menace 
produced the desired effect ; Parker denounced Alex- 
ander McDougall, who was at once arrested and 
imprisoned in the new jail, where a daily ovation was 
tendered him by his friends, who regarded him as a 



"near Mr. De La Montaigne's, *nd the time — between 10 and 11 o'clock this mom- 
" ing, where we doubt not every friend to his country will attend. 

" Legion " 
The original of this and the other handbills quoted here are preserved in tho 
library of the Historical Society. 



44G HISTORY OF THE 

martyr to the cause of libert}'. The hxdies flocked in 
crowds to the cell of the imprisoned patriot, and so 
numerous were his visitors, that, in order to gain leisure 
for the defence of his cause, he was obliged to publish a 
card, fixing his hours for public reception. He remained 
in the jail from February to the April term of the court, 
when the grand jury found a bill against him, to which 
he pleaded "not guilty." A few days afterward, he 
was released on bail. 

The Sons of Liberty, meanwhile, continued their 
opposition to the Assembly, watching vigilantly over 
the maintenance of the Non-importation Act, which the 
merchants, on their part, had not ceased to observe. 
They also attempted to substitute the vote by ballot for 
the old mode of the open vote, but the plan, though 
warmly approved by the people, was rejected in the 
House by a large majority. In the spring of 1770, a 
change took place in the disposition of the British 
ministry. Lord Nortli assumed the charge of affairs, 
and, under his direction, the tax was at once removed 
from all the articles enumerated in the bill of Towns- 
hend, with the exception qf that on tea. This, indeed, 
was retained rather in proof of the right of Great Britain 
to tax the colonics, than for any considerable difference 
in the revenue. But the principle was equally dear 
to the American patriots ; they were sworn to resist 
parliamentary taxation, and they resolved that they 
would not yield a single point which might be construed 
into a precedent for future oppression. 

In the meantime, the contest had been renewed about 
the Liberty-Pole, which, for three years, had remained 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 4-17 

unmolested. On the 13th of January, 1770, a party of 
soldiers belonging to the 16th regiment attacked it, and, 
cutting off' the wooden supportei's about it, made a fruit- 
less attempt to blow it up with gunpowder. Failing iu 
this, they next fell upon a knot of citizens who had 
gathered in front of Montague's public-house in Broad- 
way near Murray street^at that time the head-quarters 
of the Sons of Liberty — and forced them into the house 
at the point of the bayonet. The besieged vainly 
attempted to barricade the doors, but the soldiers broke 
in, sword in hand, and demolished the windows and fur- 
niture. In the midst of the destruction, some officers 
came up, and ordered the soldiers back to their bar- 
racks. 

On the two following nights, the attempts were 
repeated without success ; but, on the night of the 16th, 
taking shelter in a ruined building near by, which had 
formerly been used for barracks, the soldiers accom- 
plished their design, and, levelling the pole to the 
ground, sawed it into pieces, and derisively piled it up 
before Montague's door. 

This insult aroused the Sons of Liberty. Handbills 
were circulated the next day through the city,* calling on 
the people to meet that night on the Commons to dis- 
cuss the outrage. Three thousand citizens assembled in 
answer to the call. The meeting was quiet but earnest. 
Resolutions were passed, declaring unemployed soldiers 

• Taking warning by the defection of Parker, to escape detection, tlie Liberty 
Coya went at night to Holt's printing-office in Broad street near the Exchange, where 
they set up the type and printed the handbills themselves, then circulated them hf 
their emissaries the next day through the city. 



448 HISTORY OF THE 

to be dangerous to the peace of the city, while their 
employment by the citizens when off duty was detri- 
mental to the interests of the laboring classes and should 
tnerefore be discontinued. They further resolved that 
all soldiers under the rank of orderly, with the exception 
of sentinels, who should appear armed in the streets, 
together with all, both armed and unarmed, who should 
be found out of their barracks after the roll-call, should 
be regarded as enemies of the city and dealt with 
accordingly. Committees were also appointed to demo- 
lish the ruined building which had sheltei'ed the soldiers 
in their attack on the Liberty-Pole, and to ask permis- 
sion of the Common Council to erect another in its 
stead. 

The next day, three soldiers were detected by Isaac 
Sears and Walter Quackenbos in the act of posting 
throughout the city, scurrilous placards, signed by the 
1 6th Regiment of Foot, and abusive of the Sons of 
Liberty.* Incensed at this proceeding. Sears instantly 

• " God, and a Soldier, all Men most adore. 
In Time of War, and not before ; 
When the War is over, and all tilings righted, 
God is forgotten, and the Soldier slighted." 

" Whereas, un uncommon and riotous disturbance prevails throughout the city by 

" some of its inhabitants, who style themselves the S — s of L y, but rather ;i;ay 

•' more properly be called real enemies to society ; and whereas, the army now quar- 
" tered in New York, are represented in a heinous light, to their ofEcers and othor.=, 
" for having propagated a disturbance in this city, by attempting to destroy their Lib- 
" erty-Pole, in the fields ; which, being now completed, without the assistance of the 
" armv, we have reason to laugh at them, and beg the public only to observe how 

" cliaTlned these pretended S — of L look as they pass through the streets ; 

•' especially as these great heroes thought their freedom depended on a piece of wood, 
" and who may well be compared to Esau, who sold his birth-right for a mess of pot- 
" ta^e. And although those shining S — of L have boasted of their freedom. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 449 

grasped one by the collar, while Quackenbos laid hold 
of the other. The third of the party rushed upon Seary 
with his bayonet and endeavored to free his conn-ade 
from his grasp, but the latter, seizing a friendly ram's 

" surely they have no right to throw an aspersion upon the array, since it is out of the 
" power of military discipline to deprive them of their freedom. However, notwith- 
" standing, we are proud to see these elevated geniuses reduced to the low degree of 
" having their place of general rendezvous made a (Gallows Green) vulgar phrase for 
" a common place of execution for murderers, robbers, traitors and r — a, to the lat- 

" ter of which we may compare those famous L B — s (Liberty Boys) who have 

" nothing to boast of but the flippancy of tongue, although in defiance of the laws 

"and good government of our most gracious sovereign, they openly and r y 

" (riotously) assembled in multitudes, to stir up the minds of his majesty's good sub- 
"jects to sedition; they have in their late seditious libel, signed Brutos, expressed 
" the most villainous falsehoods against the soldiers But as ungrateful as they ;iie 
" counted, it is well known, since their arrival in New York they have watched nigl t 
"and day for the safety and protection of the city and its inhabitants ; who have sul- 
" fered the rays of the scorching sun in summer, and the severe colds of freezmg 
" snowy nights in winter, which must be the case and fifty times worse had there been 

" a war, which we sincerely pray for, in hopes those S — s of L (Sons of Lib- 

" erty) may feel the effects of it, with famine and destruction pouring on their heads, 
" 'Tis well known to the ofliicers of the 16th Regiment, as well as by several others, 
" that the soldiers of the sixteenth always gained the esteem and good will of the 
" inhabitants, in wh.atever quarter they lay, and were never counted neither insolent 
" or ungrateful, except in this city. And Ukewise the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 
" who always behaved with gratitude and respect to every one. But the means of 
" making your famous city, which you so much boast of, an impoverished one, is 
" your acting in violation to the laws of the British government ; but take heed, lest 
" you repent too late — for if you boast so mightily of your famous exploits, as you 
" have heretofore done (witness the late Stamp Act) we may allow you to be all 
" Alexaxdeks, and lie under your feet, to be trodden upon with contempt and dis- 
"dain; but before we so tamely submit, be assured we will stand in defence of the 
'■ rights and privileges due to a soldier, and no farther ; but we hope, while we have 
" officers of conduct to act for us, they will do so, as we shall leave it to their discre- 
" tion to act impartially for us, in hopes they, and every honest heart, will support 
'• the soldiers' wives and children, and not whores and bastards, as has been so mali- 
" elously, falsely and audaciously inserted in their impertinent libel, addressed to the 
" public ; for which, may the shame they mean to brand our names with, stick ou 
" theirs. 

" (Signed bv the 16th Regiment of Foot.)" 

29 



450 HISTORY OF THE 

horn which happened to He near b}', hurled it with force 
into the face of his assailant, who reeled back from the 
shock, and left the Sons of Liberty to make their way 
with the captives to the office of the mayor. 

A reinforcement of twenty soldiers now came up with 
drawn swords and bayonets to the rescue of their com- 
rades. The unarmed citizens, who had flocked in num- 
bers to the spot, wrenched the stakes from the carts and 
sleighs that stood about, and, surrounding their pri- 
soners, prepared to guard them at all hazards. Mayor 
Hicks now interfered, and ordered the soldiers to their 
barracks. Yielding a partial obedience, they retired as 
far as Golden Hill, in John street between William and 
ClifiF streets, closely pursued by the citizens, where thev 
were joined by a fresh reinforcement, headed by a pre- 
sumed officer in disguise, who gave the command to halt 
and charge upon the populace. The few of the people who 
had been able to secure weapons ranged themselves in 
front of their defenceless friends, and a sanguinary con- 
test ensued, in which numbers wei-e injured on either 
side. Francis Field, a peaceable Quaker, who was stand- 
ing in his doorway watching the affray, received a 
severe wound in his cheek. Three other citizens were 
wounded, one of them being thrust through with a bay- 
onet. At some distance from them, a sailor was cut 
down. A boy was wounded in the head, and fled to a 
neighboring house for shelter. A woman kindly opened 
the door for him, when a brutal soldier made a thrust at 
her with a bayonet, fortunately missing his aim. One 
of the citizens who had been foremost in securing the 
prisoners at the mayor's office was attacked by two sol- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 451 

diers at once, but he defended himself vigorously wiih a 
cane, his only weapon, and forced his assailants back to 
the hill. Another citizen who was standing in the door 
of his house was attacked by a party of soldiers who 
attempted to enter — but, being armed, he succeeded in 
beating off the intruders.* 

During the whole of the affray, the citizens had con- 
tinued to surround the hill, and thus to keep their 
enemies in a state of blockade. Many of the soldiers 
were severely wounded, and many more disarmed ; jet 
this was done chiefly in self-defence ; the people stand- 
ing on the defensive, and contenting themselves with 
merely repelling the attacks, when they might easily, if 
disposed, have massacred the aggressors. At this jui c- 
ture, a fresh party from the barracks came up, and 
called to their comrades to charge on the citizens, while 
they would support them by an attack on the rear, but 
just as they were preparing for the assault, a party of 
officers appeared, and ordered them to their barracks. 
The people at once opened their ranks and raised the 
siege, thus ending the first day of the contest in a drawn 
battle. 

The next morning — the 19th — the soldiers recom- 
menced the conflict by thrusting a bayonet through the 
cloak and dress of a woman who was returning from 
market. This dastardly act awakened the indignation of 
the citizens, and knots of people gathered ominously 

* Michael Smith, tlie last survivor of the Battle of Golden Hill, as well as of the 
>f 3w York Liberty Boys, died in 1847, at the advanced age of ninety-four yoars. A 
tousket which he took from a soldier in the fray, and which did active service ij) his 
hands through the whole of the Revolution, is still preserved as a relic in his family. 



452 HISTORY OF THE 

ftbout the corners of the streets to discuss the outrage 
together with the aflfray of the day before. About noon, 
a group of sailors, who were invariably found on the 
popular side, came in collision with a party of soldiers 
from the barracks. A violent altercation ensued, from 
words they came to blows, and, in the conflict, an old 
sailor was run through the body. In the midst of the 
strife, the mayor appeared on the ground, and ordered 
the military to disperse, but the infuriated soldiers 
refused to obey. He then dispatched a messenger to 
the barracks to summon the officers, but the troops inter- 
cepted him, and, barring the way with their drawn 
bayonets, refused to suffer him to proceed. At this 
juncture, a party of Liberty Boys, who had been playmg 
ball on the corner of Broadway and John street, came 
to the rescue and soon dispersed the soldiers, and hos- 
tilities ceased for a few hours. 

In the afternoon, the battle commenced anew. Seeing 
a group of citizens assembled on the Commons in front 
of the New Jail, a party of soldiers approached them in 
a body and insultingly endeavored to force their way 
through, when the citizens quietly opened their ranks, 
and gave them free passage. Determined at all hazards 
to provoke an affray, they next assaulted the people, and 
endeavored to disarm them of their canes. This inso- 
lence awakened the ire of the citizens, who turned at 
once upon their assadants. A party of Liberty Boys in 
the neighborhood, on hearing of the fray, hastened to 
the spot, and a sharp conflict ensued, in which the dis- 
comfited soldiers were driven to the barracks. Several 
o]> The soldiers were disarmed by the citizens, one was 



CITY OP NEW YORK. 453 

haclly wounded in the shoulder, and another who had 
distinguished himself in the conflict of the day before, 
was arrested and committed to prison for trial. Thus 
ended the battle of Golden Hill — a conflict of two days' 
duration — which, originating as it did in the defence of 
a principle, was an affair of which New Yorkers have 
just reason to be proud, and which is worthy of far 
more prominence than has usually been given it b}^ stand- 
ard historians. It was not until nearly two months 
after that the "Boston Massacre" occurred, a contest 
which has been glorified and perpetuated in history ; yet 
this was second both in date and in significance to the 
New York " Battle of Golden Hill." * 

On the day after the defeat of the British troops, the 
ma3^or issued orders that no soldiers should appear out- 
side the barracks when off duty unless accompanied by 
a non-commissioned officer ; and the Sons of Liberty, 
thus relieved from the annoyance of their presence, 

* The following extract from a London journal, dated Thursday, March 15, 1770, 
kindly furnished us by Henry B. Dawson, Esq., whose researches have done much 
to rescue the history of the New York Liberty Boys from oblivion, proves by the 
testimony of the British themselves that, in the streets of the city of New York, the 
first blood was shed — the first life sacrificed to the cause of Liberty in the Ameri- 
can Revolution. 

•' Extract of a letter from Ifew Vor/c, dated Jatiuari/ 22. 
" We are all in Confusion in this City ; the Soldiers have cut and blowed up Liberty- 
" Pole, and liave caused much Trouble between the Inhabitants : on Friday last 
" (January 18, 1770) between Burling Slip and the Fly Market, was an Engagement 
'■ between the Inhabitants and the Soldiers, when much Blood was spilt : One 
•'■ Sailor got run through the Body, who since Died: One man got his Skull cut ia 
" the most cruel Manner. On Saturday (January 19, 1770) the Hall Bell rang for 
" an Alarm, when was another Battle between the Inhabitants and Soldiers ; but 
" the Soldiers met with Rubbers, the Chiefest part being Sailors and Clubs to 
" revenge the Death of their Brother, which they did with Courage, and made 
" them all run to their Barracks. What will be the end of this God knows !" 



454 HISTORY OF THE 

turned their attention again to the erection of a Liberty- 
Pole. ^yG have already mentioned the appointment of 
a committee to ask permission of the mayor and Com- 
mon Council to erect a pole in the place of the one that 
had been cut down by the soldiers. This measure was 
opposed by John Lamb and some others, who declared 
that the corporation had no voice in the matter, but 
their objections were finally overruled by the majority. 
On the 30th of January, the committee presented a 
memorial to Mayor Hicks and the Common Council, 
stating that the token of gratitude to the king and his 
minister which had been erected by the patriotic citizens 
of Xew York had been repeatedly overthrown by the 
riotous soldiery, and craving permission to vindicate the 
rights of the people by setting up another monument to 
constitutional liberty in its stead.* The request was 

• •' To THE Sons of Liberty in this City. 
" Gentlemen : It's well known, that it has been the custom of all nations to erect 
" monuments to perpetuate the Remembrance of grand Events. Experience has 
" proved that they have had a good effect on the Posterity of those who raised 
" them, especially such as were made sacred to Liberty. Influenced by these Con- 
" siderations, a number of the Friends to Liberty in this City erected a Pole in the 
" Fields, on Ground belonging to the Corporation, as a temporary memorial of the 
" unanimous Opposition to the detestable Stamp Act; which, having been destroyed 
" by some disaffected Persons, a Number of the Inhabitants determined to erect 
" another, made several applications to the Mayor, as the principal member of the 
" Corporation, for Leave to erect a new Pole in the place where the old one stood. 
•' The Committee that waited on him the last Time, disposed to remove everv 
'Objection, apprehensive that some of the Corporation might be opposed to the 
" erection of the Pole, from a supposition that those Citizens who were for its being 
" raised, were actuated solely by a Party spirit, offered, when the Pole was iinished, 
"to make it a present to the Corporation, provided they would order it to be 
" erected either where the other stood, or near Mr. Van Bergh's, where the two 
" roads meet. But even this, astonishing as it may seem to Englishmen, was 
" rejected by the Majority of the Corporation and the other Requisitions denied 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 455 

refused. In the meantime, Lamb and his associates had 
piircliased a piece of ground eleven feet wide by a hun- 
dred feet deep, near the site of the former pole, and, 
while the memorial was yet before the board, made 
preparations for the erection of a Liberty-Pole, inde- 
pendent of the corporation. Here, on the 6th of 
February, 1770, a mast of great length, cased two-thirds 
its height with iron hoops and bars, firmly riveted 
together, was sunk twelve feet deep into the ground, 
amid the shouts of the people and the sound of music. 
Tliis pole was inscribed, " Liberty and Property," and 
was surmounted by a gilt vane, bearing a similar inscrip- 
tion in large letters. Thus was raised the fifth Liberty- 
Pole in the city, with a motto far less loyal than that 
which had so deeply offended the royal soldieiy. 

Montague's house had heretofore been the head-quar- 
ters of the Sons of Liberty, but, ere long, the proprietor 
suffered himself to be won over by the opposite party 
who engaged his rooms for the approaching celebration 
of the repeal of the Stamp Act. The Liberty Boys 
however, were not to be balked by this arrangement , 
determining to support an establishment of their own, 
they purchased a house on the site of Barnum's Museum, 
kept by Henry Bicker, which they christened Hampden 

'■ We question whether tliis Conduct can be paralleled by any Act of any Corpora- 
•' tiou in the British Dominions, chosen by the Suffrage of Free People. 

" And now, Gentlemen, seeing we are debarred the privilege of Public Ground 
" to erect the Pole on, we have purchased a place for it near where the other 
■■ stood, which is full as public as any of the Corporation Ground. Your Attend- 
" ance and countenance are desired at nine o'clock on Tuesday morning^ the fith 
" instant, at Mr. Crommelin's Wharf, in order to carry it up to be raised. 

"By Order of the Committee 
Vew York, Februnrx/ 3, 1870." 



456 HISTORY OF THE 

Hall, and consecrated to the cause of liberty ; and, on the 
19th of March, they assembled for the first time at their 
new quarters in defiance of the recreant Montagne, and 
celebrated the anniversary of the colonial triumph. At 
this time, McDougall was in prison, and his brethren 
resolved to give him an ovation. The proceedings 
against him having been recorded on the forty-fifth page 
of the Journal of the Assembly, the number had grown 
into a cabalistic word among the fraternity. On the 
day in question, forty-five toasts were drunk, among 
which was one to Alexander McDougall, and, after din- 
ner, the whole company proceeded to the jail to pay 
their respects to the imprisoned patriot. Here they 
saluted him with forty-five cheers, then, marching to 
the Liberty-Pole, they quietly disbanded. 

A similar compliment had been paid to McDougall on 
the forty-fifth day of the year, when forty-five of the 
Liberty Boys went in procession to the New Jail, where 
they dined with him on forty-five beef-stealvs cut from a 
bullock forty-five months old, and, after drinking forty- 
five toasts with a number of friends who joined them 
after dinner, separated, vowing eternal fidelity to the 
common cause. These demonstrations are trivial in 
themselves, but they serve to show something of the 
spirit which animated the New York patriots of the 
Revolution. 

On the 29th of March, a party of British soldiers, who 
had been ordered to embark in a few days for Pen- 
sacola, made another attack on the Liberty-Pole, a part 
of which they had vowed to carry with them as a 
trophy. Finding the lower part too strongly fortified, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 457 

they attempted to unship the topmast which supported 
the vane, but were discovered in the attempt by a few 
citizens Avho happened to pass by and who quickly gave 
the alarm. The soldiers hastily retreated to the barracks, 
while the Liberty Boys rallied to the defence of the 
pole. In the meantime, the soldiers, at first fifteen in 
number, had been reinforced by forty more, and returned, 
charging with drawn weapons upon the citizens, who 
retreated to Hampden Hall. The soldiers, closely pur- 
suing them, surrounded the house and attempted to 
force the door. Bicker defended the entrance with 
fixed bayonet in hand, while the infuriated marauders 
swore that they would burn the house with all the rebels 
it contained, and take vengeance on the enemies of Eng- 
land and King George. A party of Liberty Boys who 
had escaped from the pole, hastened to St. George's 
Chapel in Beekman street, and rung out a general alarm. 
The citizens flew to arms, and the British officers, seeing 
that the affair was becoming serious, and warned by the 
result of the battle of Golden Hill, hastened to the spot 
and ordered their men to the barracks. A strong guard 
was set about the pole every night afterwards until the 
3d of May, when the disappointed soldiers set sail for 
Pensacola without the coveted trophy. Henceforth, the 
Liberty-Pole was left for some years to stand unmolested. 
On the anniversary of the repeal of 1775, William 
Cunningham, the notorious Provost Marshal of '76, 
who had been in the beginning of the struggle a pro- 
fessed Son of Liberty, approached the pole in company 
with John Hill, and made an assault on the patriots who 
were aathered about it. After a short struggle, they 



log HISTORY OF THE 

were disarmed and committed to jail. Such is the 
popular version of the story. The royalist papers, on 
the other liand, assert that Cunningham and Hill were 
first attacked by the people, who endeavored to force 
them to abjure the king, and, on their refusal, wantonly 
maltreated them. Whatever may be the truth of the 
matter, certain it is that Cunningham wreaked a terrible 
vengeance on the helpless prisoners intrusted to his care 
in the following year, after the capture of the city by 
the British. The Liberty Pole at the same time was 
levelled by his orders — its fittest destiny when the liberty 
of the city had fled. 

Soon after the departure of the troops, a Boston 
merchant by the name of Nathan Rogers, who had been 
posted by his fellow-citizens for refusing to comply with 
the non-importation agreement, visited the city, and the 
Sons of Liberty, suspecting that his visit was designed 
to win over the New York merchants, resolved to give 
him a public reception. On the 10th of May, they 
assembled in procession, bearing his effigy suspended 
on a gallows, and, passing through the principal streets 
of the city, proceeded to his house, attended by four or 
five thousand spectators, in order to introduce him in 
person to the citizens. In this they were disappointed, 
as he had dined out of town. They then repaired with 
the effigy to the Commons, where it was burned amid the 
acclamations of the people. Terrified at this demon- 
stration, Rogers immediately returned to Boston, while 
the vigilant Sons of Liberty, learning that he designed 
in a few days to visit Philadelphia, dispatched an 
account of their proceedings with a minute personal 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 459 

descrijition of the traitor to their brethren of that city, 
urging them to accord to him a similar welcome. 

Some time previous to this, a General Committee of 
One Hundred had been appointed to watch over the liber- 
ties of the city. This was composed in part of moderate 
men, who, without belonging to the royalist party, 
wavered between it and the enthusiastic Sons of Lib- 
erty — who were, in short, conservative. Now that the 
duty had been removed from all articles except tea, a 
portion of this committee began to talk of resuming the 
importations with this single exception. Rhode Island 
had openly broken through the non-importation agree- 
ment, and the other colonies, though they nominally 
protested against the infraction of the compact, were 
constantly violating it, and had continued to import 
nearly half as much as before.' 'New York alone had 
remained faithful to her pledge ; for five years, her com- 
merce had been almost totally suspended, and, weary 
of thus sustaining the brunt of the contest, the almost 
ruined merchants welcomed the idea, and, believing that 
they could now honorably retrieve their fortunes without 
the sacrifice of a principle, on the 9th of July, resolved 
to resume their importations of all goods with the excep- 
tion of the duty-laden tea. In this resolution they felt 
themselves justified ; they had been the first to propose 
the compact and to urge it upon the notice of the mer- 
chants of other cities ; the pledge once given, they had 
preserved it inviolate, without compromise and witlioui 
evasion ; with ruined commercial interests, impoverished 
fortunes, and a suffering city, they had faithfully adhered 

' Sec page 442. 



4 GO HISTORY OF THE 

to their agreement, so long as the cause which had called 
it forth remained, and now that it was partially removed, 
they frankly and openly recalled their obhgations, and 
were, in truth, the last to renounce the compact, as they 
had been the only ones to maintain it inviolate. 

Yet this conduct failed to please the impetuous Sons 
of Liberty, who insisted on preserving the agreement 
until the duty on tea should also be repealed, and they, 
with all who belonged to their band, continued to 
maintain it intact until the end of the struggle. The 
eastern and southern colonies, though they had virtuaUy 
renounced it long before by their infractions, at lirst 
protested bitterly against the open renunciation by the 
New York merchants, but many weeks had not passed 
before they followed the example, and formally resumed 
their importations with the single exception of the article 
of tea. 

On the 25th of October, Golden was superseded in 
the government by the arrival of Lord Dunmore. The 
new governor informed the Assembly of the king's 
approval of their emission of bills of credit, and reminded 
them that they were expected to continue in well-doing 
and not to forget to make due appropriations for the 
troops quartered among them. The complaisant body 
received the message gi-aciously, and, as a first demonstra- 
tion of loyalty, on the 20th of January, 1771, summoned 
Alexander McDougall, who was now at large on bail, to 
appear before them and answer to the indictment for 
libel which was pending over him. McDougall obeyed the 
summons, but refused to acknowledge the authorship of 
the paper. He was questioned the second time, and 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 461 

ordered to return a definitive answer. " The House hae 
" declared the paper a Hbel, and the law does not require 
" me to criminate myself," replied he in answer to the 
second interrogation. " The House has power to extort 
"an answer, and will punish you for contumacy if you 
" refuse to reply," exclaimed De Noyellis, at whose 
instance the charge had first been brought. " The 
" House has power to throw the prisoner over the bar or 
"out of the window, but the public will doubt the 
"justice of the proceedings," hiterposed George Clinton, 
the future governor of New York and vice-president of 
the United States, who alone dared avow himself 
McDougall's defender. A written answer was finally 
submitted by the prisoner, but the House refused to 
receive it, alleging that its contents reflected on the dig- 
nity of their body. " The dignity of the House would 
" be better supported by justice than by overstrained 
" authority," exclaimed CUnton, indignantly. But the 
Assembly refused to listen to his remonstrances, and 
upon McDougall's refusal to ask pardon for the offence, 
committed him to jail without further ceremony. A writ 
of habeas corpus was immediately sued out, but the 
House refused to deliver him up, alleging the existence 
of precedents in the Enghsh courts of law, and he was 
detained as a prisoner until the last of February, when, 
through the efforts of his friends, he obtained his 
release. 

It was not long before the government was again 
changed by the transfer of Lord Dunmore to Virginia, 
and the appointment of "VViliiam Tryon in his stead. The 
new governor arrived with his family, on the 8th of July, 



462 HISTORY OF THE 

1771, and was well received by the jieople. Directly 
after his arrival, the Assembly voted him an income of 
two thousand pounds ; but he refused its acceptance, 
saying that his salary was to be paid from his majesty's 
treasury, and that he had been forbidden to receive any 
gifts from tlie Assembly. A similar offer had previously 
been rejected by Lord Dunmore. This was a new 
scheme of the British government for securing the sub- 
mission of the colonies ; the treasury in question was 
intended to be supplied from the colonial taxes, the dis- 
bursement of which was thus retained in the hands of 
the ministry. 

Hardly had Tryon arrived in the province before 
Isaac Sears was called upon to pay the penalty of his 
previous daring. His prominence in the public censure 
of the Assembly had never been forgotten, and to 
punish him, he was accused of having neglected his 
duty as inspector of pot and pearl ashes. George Clin- 
ton, Philip Schuyler and Nathaniel WoodhuU warmly 
espoused his cause, and numerous affidavits were made 
before the House to prove his fidelity to his duty ; but 
these failed to appease the irate Assembly ; Sears was 
condemned to political decapitation, and Montague, the 
tavern-keeper, appointed in his stead. 

Few outbreaks occurred within the next two years, 
yet the spirit of opposition continued to grow more 
intense among the patriot citizens. Complete stagnation 
pi-evailed in the city, public improvements were totally 
neglected, and the people thought only of resistance to 
oppression. Commerce, indeed, was partially resumed, 
but the use of tea had become obsolete in the city, and 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



463 



any citizen \vho would have dai'ed to introduce it on iiis 
table, would have been branded at once as a traitor 
to his coiintr}". 

The only edifice of anj' consequence ei'ected in the 
cit}' from the building of the Brick Church in Beels- 
man street in 1752 to the close of the Revolution, 
was the New York Hospital, the corner-stone of which 
was laid by Governor Tryon on the 2d of Septem- 
ber, 1773. The site at this time was far out of town, 
and any one would have been considered visionary 




Old Nnv York Hospital, lu BroadH ij (betneeu Dinnc and Anthony Streets) 



464 HISTORY OF THE 

indeed, who would have dared to suggest the possibihty 
that the city might one day crowd upon its grounds. 
The scheme had been projected some years before ; in 
1770, several physicians notified Colden that sundry 
public-spirited individuals were collecting subscriptions 
for a public hospital, and in the following year, a royal 
charter was granted the institution. The necessary 
funds haviuf? been subsciibed, a spacious square of five 
acres on Broadway was purchased in 1773, and build- 
ings erected at a cost of about eighteen thousand dollars. 
Before their completion, the interior was burned out by 
an accidental fire, and the works thus retarded for a con- 
siderable time ; they were finished, however, in time to 
be used as barracks by the English troops duiing theii* 
subsequent occupation of the city. After the evacuation 
in 1783, the hospital was restored to its original use, 
and was opened in 1791 for the reception of patients. 
It served for this purpose until May, 1873, when the fine 
old ivy covered building at the head of Pearl street was 
demolished, and its site was covered with warehouses. 

On the night of the 29th of December, a fire broke 
out in the governor's house in the fort, which had been 
rebuilt since its destruction in the days of the negro plot 
of 1741, and was now occupied by Governor Tryon, and 
80 rapid was the progress of the conflagration, that the 
inmates barely escaped with their lives, while the houses 
in the vicinity were only saved by the snow which lay 
thickly upon the roofs. The governor and his wife fled 
through a side door, their daughter saved herself by 
leaping from a second-story window, but a young 
servant girl by the name of Elizabeth Garrett, perished 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 465 

miserably in the flames. The house was burned to the 
ground, with all that it contained. Two days after- 
wards, the great seal of the province was raked out from 
the ashes uninjured. The governor removed with his 
family to the house on the corner of Wall and William 
streets, afterwards occupied by the Bank of New York, 
where the Legislature tendered him their condolences, 
and presented him with five thousand pounds by way 
of indemnification for his loss. It was not long before 
business recalled him to England, and he set sail from 
the city, leaving the government again in the hands of 
Oadwallader Golden. 



30 



CHAPTER XVI, 



1773—1776. 



The New York Tea Party— Commencement of Open Hostilities— Declaration of Inde 
pendence in New York— Battle of Long Island— Battle of Harlem Plains— Capture of 
Fort Washington — The British in Possession of the City. 

Affairs were now rapidly drawing to a crisis. Incensed 
by the steadfast refusal of the colonists to receive the 
tea, the ministry determined to force it upon them, and, 
despite the remonstrances of the East India Company, 
who offered to pay double the amount of the American 
impost, provided parliament would repeal the tax, passed 
a law, permitting the Company to export their tea to 
the colonies free from the duties which they had hitherto 
paid in England, and only retaining the duty of three- 
pence per pound which was paid in America. As this 
enabled the Americans to obtain their tea cheaper even 
than the English, it was thought that they would be 
entrapped by the insidious snare, and unguardedly yield 
assent to the principle of parliamentary taxation. 

As soon as it was known that this bill had passed 
and that large shipments of tea had been ordered for 
America, the Sons of Liberty again assembled to consult 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 467 

together in this new emergency. Stamp Distributors 
and Tea Commissioners were declared by them to be 
ahke obnoxious, and it was resolved that no tea should 
be landed in the city ; while the Mohawks, another 
organization of the same stamp, pledged themselves to 
take care of the tea-ships on their arrival. 

The news of these demonstrations soon reached Eng- 
land, and so much alarmed some of the commission- 
merchants that they refused to have anything to do with 
the shipments of tea to the colonies, so firmly persuaded 
were they of its certain destruction. A merchant named 
Kelly, who had resided in New York but was now in Lon- 
don, assured them that their apprehensions were ground- 
less, and that the tea would be landed, saying that, in the 
days of the Stamp Act, affairs were in the hands of an 
imbecile old man, but that now a soldier was at the head 
of the government, who could easily reduce the rebels to 
obedience. On hearing of this, the patriots called a 
meeting, and burnt Kelly in effigy on the 5th of Novem- 
ber in front of the Coffee House on the corner of Water 
and Wall streets. 

Taking alarm at these expressions of the people, the 
three Tea Commissioners who had been appointed for 
New York resigned their commissions on the 10th of 
November. The tea-ships had sailed from England on 
the 26th of October, but had been forced to put back b)^ 
stress of weather. On the 25th of November, the 
Mohawks were notified to be in readiness for their 
arrival, and, two days after, the Sons of Liberty formally 
reorganized and passed the following resolutions, which 
are of sufficient importance to be transcribed entire : 



468 HISTORY OF TUB 

" Resolved, That whoever shall aid or abet, or in any 
" manner assist in the introduction of tea from any 
"place whatsoever into this colony, while it is subject, 
"by a British Act of Parhament, to the payment of a 
" duty for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, 
•'shall be deemed an enemy to the liberties of 
" America. 

"Resolved, That whoever shall be aiding or assisting 
" in the landing or carting of such tea from an}- ship or 
"vessel, or shall hire any house, storehouse or cellar, or 
" any place whatsoever to deposit the tea, subject to 
" such duty, as aforesaid, shall be deemed an enemy 
" to the liberties of America. 

" Resolved, That whoever shall sell or buy, or in any 
"manner contribute to the purchase of tea, subject to 
" duty, as aforesaid, or shall aid or abet in transporting 
"such tea by land or water from the city until the 
"7th Geo. III. Chap. 46, commonly called the Revenue 
" Act, shall be totally and clearly repealed, shall be 
" deemed an enemy to the liberties of America. 

"Resolved, That whether the duties imposed by this 
" act be paid in Groat Britain or in America, our liber- 
" ties are equally affected. 

" Resolved, That whoever shall transgress any of these 
"resolutions, we will not deal with or employ, or have 
" any connection with him." 

The spirit of. these resolutions, coupled with the 
energetic preparations of the New York patriots, 
demonstrate clearly the reception which they held in 
store for the tea-ship on its arrival. But the expected 
vessel encountered a severe tempest on her way, and was 



CITY or NEW YORK. 469 

forced f.o put in at Antigua for repairs. Iiitelligence 
having been received that she might hourly be expected, 
on the IGth of December, the very day of the Boston 
tea-party, the Sons of Liberty assembled in the City 
Hall, and unanimously resolved that no tea should be 
landed under any pretext. In the midst of their delib- 
erations, the mayor and recorder entered, bearing a 
message from the governor, in which he assured the 
people that the tea should be sent back in the ships that 
brought it, but must first be taken into the fort to await 
an order for its return from the council. The snare was 
a subtle one, and it nearly entrapped the assembly. 
But John Lamb detected the artifice, and, springing to 
his feet, he read the Act of Parliament, and pointed out 
therefrom that if the tea were landed, the duty must be 
paid. " Shall it be received ?" asked he, in conclusion. 
" No! no ! no!" was the unanimous reply, and the dis- 
appointed ambassadors withdrew to carry to the governor 
the tidings of their failure. 

The winter wore away without much event. The long 
expected tea-ship, delayed by contrary winds, failed to 
make her appearance, yet the patriotic citizens relaxed 
nothing of their vigilance, but, through their committees 
of correspondence, kept themselves notified of every 
suspicious movement on the part of their enemies. On 
the 7th of April, Tryon set sail for England, leaving the 
government in the hands of Golden. As yet there had 
been no rupture between him and the people, who 
were disposed to regard him with favor for his lax observ- 
ance of his rigid instructions, and he quitted the province 
with their sincere regrets. 



470 HISTORY OF THE 

On the ISth of Aiiril, 1774, the Nancy, Captain 
Lockyer, arrived off Sandy Hook, bringing the tea 
destined for the port of N"ew York. Apprised of her 
coming, the Committee of Vigih\nce had instructed the 
pilots to detain her in the lower bay, as well as the 
London, commanded by Captain Chambei's, which, they 
had been informed, was also on the way with a consid- 
erable quantity of the prohibited tea. Faithful to their 
orders, the pilots refused to bring the vessel up to the 
city ; while a part of the committee proceeded on board, 
and, secur.ing the boats to prevent the desertion of the 
crew, took possession of the vessel until she should be 
ready to return to England. The captain entreated 
permission to go up to the city to consult with his con- 
signee, and to obtain the necessary supplies for his 
return. This was granted him on condition that he 
should not approach the Custom House, and he was sent 
under strict surveillance to the wharf, where he was met 
b}' the committee and a large concourse of citizens. 
Seeing that all attempts at evasion would be in vain, he 
proceeded at once to his consignee, who refused peremp- 
torily to receive the cargo, and advised him as his best 
course to return with it to England. This advice was 
seconded by the Vigilance Committee, who rendered 
every facility for preparing the vessel for sea, but refused 
to suffer a single sailor to come on shore, while they 
kept a watchful eye upon all the movements of the 
captain. 

The vessel being nearly ready for sea, it was deter- 
mined to give the captain a public leave-taking, and 
numerous placards were posted through the city, inviting 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 471 

the citizens to join in the demonstration.* On the day 
after these were issued — the 22d of April — the London 
with her recreant captain, a New Yorker, who had once 
received the public thanks of the city for refusing to 
bring tea on a previous voyage, appeared off Sandy 
Hook, where she was instantly boarded by two of the 
Vigilance Committee. The captain assured them that 
there was no tea on board his ship, and, as none was to 
be found on his manifest, he was finally permitted to 
come up to the city. The wharf was thronged with cit- 
izens, and was a scene of intense excitement. Hardly 
had the vessel touched the shore when she was visited by 
the whole committee, who demanded the delivery of the 
tea. Chambers repeated his denial. He was told in 
reply that they knew that the tea was there, and that 
they would search every package in the ship till they 
found it. Finding it impossible to escape the dreaded 
search, he at length confessed that there was really some 
tea on board, but insisted that it was only a private 
adventure, belonging to himself, and shipped without 
the knowledge of the East India Company. The Com- 
mittee then withdrew to the Coffee House on the corner 
of Water and Wall streets to deliberate, taking the 

* The placard in question ran as follows : " To the Public. — The sense of the city 
" relative to the landing of the East India Company's tea, being signified to Captain 
" Lockyer by the Committee, nevertheless, it is the design of a number of the citizens 
" that ftt his departure hence, he shall see with his own eyes their detestation of the 
" measures pursued by the ministry and the India Company to enslave this country. 
■' This will be declared by the convention of the people at his departure from this city, 
"which will be on next Saturda;/ xaovnmg, a.t o'clock; when, no doubt, every 
" friend to this country will attend. The bells will give notice about an hour before 
"he embarks from Murray's Wharf. 

" New York, April 21, 1774. " Br order of the Committek.'' 



472 HISTORYOF THE 

captain and the owners with them. The people mean- 
while thronged the wharf, awaiting the result of their 
council. It was not long before a message was sent out 
declaring the tea to be confiscated, and directing the 
Mohawks to be ready to discharge their duty at the 
proper hour. But the impatience of the crowd could be 
restrained no longer ; at eight in the evening, they 
boarded the vessel without waiting for the Mohawks, 
forced open the hatches, hoisted eighteen chests of tea 
on deck, broke open the lids, and emptied the contents 
into the river. The captain wisely kept at a distance to 
avoid the risk of following his adventure. Everything 
was conducted decorously and openly, a guard was sta- 
tioned below to prevent all disorder, the citizens wore 
their usual attire, and no attempt was made at disguise 
or concealment. Two hours afterwards, the whole party 
had dispersed, and the wharf was empty and silent as 
the grave. 

The next day was the one appointed for the festival, 
for which they had now an additional hero. At nine in 
the morning, the people assembled in front of the Coffee 
House in Wall street where Lockyer was lodging. The 
whole city wore an air of festivity, the bells were ringing 
in mei-ry chorus, the City Hall and King's College* alone 
refusing to contribute to the chime, the flag was hoisted 
on the Liberty Pole, and the ships in the harbor displayed 

* Dr. Myles Cooper, the President of King's College, was a stanch loyalist, and 
soon became obnoxious to the people by his support of the British government. 
Hearin? soon after that the Liberty Boys intended to attack his cottage, he fled to 
Stuyvesant's house on the shores of the North River, whence he escaped to the Asia 
man-of-war then lying in the harbor He afterwards went to England, where ho 
rermitieti during the war. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 473 

their colors in triumph. The committee who had Captain 
Lockyer in charge brought him out on the balcony and 
introduced him to the people, by whom he was receiv^ed 
with ironical cheers, the bands, meanwhile, playing 
"God save the King." The presentation over, his new 
acquaintances escorted him to the foot of Wall street 
where a pilot boat was in waiting, where they parted 
with him, wishing him a pleasant journey. As he entered 
the boat, a royal salute was fired from the cannon at the 
foot of the Liberty-Pole in honor of his departure. 
Captain Chambers, meanwhile, had been escorted to the 
Ship with less ceremony by another committee, and the 
Nancy set sail with both worthies on board, still under 
the guard of the Vigilance Committee, who did not sur- 
render possession of the vessel until she was three leagues 
from Sandy Hook. 

The British ministry, meanwhile, incensed at the 
colonial reception of the consignments of tea, had made 
the refractory provinces feel the weight of their ven- 
geance. The tax was insisted on more strongly than 
ever, new provisions were made for quartering troops in 
America, Franklin was removed from his office of 
colonial post-master, and Boston was punished for her 
rebellion by a Port Bill, closing her harbor and removing 
her custom house to Salem. In this emergency, the 
Bostonians, on the 13th of May, resolved to renew the 
non-importation agreement, and dispatched a letter by 
Paul Revere to the Sons of Liberty in New York, 
urging their cooperation in the measure. This missive 
was crossed on the way by another from the Liberty 
Boys, bearing date the 14th, urging the Bostonians to 



•174 HISTORY OF THE 

tjnergetic measures, and assuring them of the hearty sup- 
port of their New York brethren. 

On the 16th of May, a meeting of the citizens was 
held at the Exchange to consult on future action. A 
new Committee of Fifty-one was nominated to corres- 
pond with the other colonies, and a general meeting of 
the people was called for the 19th to reject or confirm 
the nomination. At the latter meeting, the ticket was t 
confirmed, and the request of the Bostonians referred to 
a sub-committee, consisting of Alexander McDougaU, 
Isaac Low, James Duane and John Jay, to prepare and 
report an answer. The majority of this Committee, — 
for the impetuous McDougall indignantly withdrew, 
demanding the adoption of more ultra measures — 
deemed it inexpedient for the present to renew the com- 
pact, but recommended a General Congress of Deputies 
from all the colonies instead, and requested the Bosto- 
nians to fix the time and place of meeting. For this 
action, they were then and afterwards censured severely, 
yet the future cai'eer of the men who composed the 
committee in question is conclusive proof that they were 
actuated by no lack of patriotism, and that, though their 
resolves seemed for the moment to chime with the wishes 
of the royalist party, they only sought to postpone the 
compact until it could be better matured by concerted 
deliberation. But the enthusiastic Sons of Liberty would 
listen to no temporizing, and summoned a meeting of the 
people in the fields on the 6th of July at six o'clock in 
the evening, to discuss the conduct of the Committee of 
Fifty-one. 

On the day appointed, an immense multitude gathered 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



475 




Portrait of Alexander Hamilton, from the Original Portrait in the Possession of the 
Family. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 477 

on the Commons — Alexander McDougall presiding over 
the assembly — known henceforth as the " gi'eat meeting 
" in the fields." Resolutions were passed, denouncing the 
Boston Port Bill and sustaining the action of the people 
of that city ; a subscription was opened for the relief of 
the sufferers, and the non-importation agreement was 
again renewed. The Congress recommended by the 
Committee of Fifty- one was also approved by the meet- 
ing, and it was resolved that deputies should at once be 
appointed, and instructed to insist upon the enforcement 
of the non-intercourse agreement until every duty should 
be repealed. At this meeting, Alexander Hamilton, 
then a youth of seventeen, and a student in King's Col- 
lege made his maiden speech, and gave an earnest of his 
future brilliant career. 

On the following day, the Committee of Fifty-one met 
and disavowed the proceedings of the meeting. Upon 
this, eleven of the Sons of Liberty — Francis Lewis, 
Joseph Hallet, Alexander McDougall, Isaac Sears, 
Thomas Randall, Leonard Lispenard, Peter V. B. Liv- 
ingston, Abram P. Lott, John Broome, Jacob Van 
Zandt and Abraham Brasher — withdrew from the com- 
mittee, and published an address to the people, in 
justification of their conduct. The plan of the general 
Congress had now been decided upon, and polls were 
opened under the inspection of the maj^or and aldermen 
for the election of delegates, at which all tax-payers 
were allowed to vote. The nominations had been made 
by the Committee of Fifty-one, in conjunction with a 
Committee of Mechanics, and consisted of Philip Living- 
ston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, James Duane and John 



478 HISTORY OF THE 

I 

Jay. For the latter, the seceders endeavored to sub- 
stitute McDougall ; but the attempt was defeated, the 
whole ticket was elected, and the delegates soon after- 
wards set out to join the First Continental Congress, 
which assembled at Philadelphia early in September. 
This Congress adopted a Declaration of Colonial Rights, 
the composition of which is attributed to John Jay, in 
which they claimed for themselves all the privileges 
enjoyed by British subjects, protested against standing 
armies and parliamentary taxation, and declared eleven 
acts which had been passed since the accession of 
George III., to be infringements upon their rights, and 
therefore unconstitutional. They likewise leagued 
themselves into an American Association, pledging 
themselves to import no goods from Great Britain or 
the West Indies until the obnoxious acts should be 
repealed, and forbidding traders to increase the price of 
their goods in consequence of this agreement. The 
slave trade was also denounced by the Association, and 
the citizens were urged to develop the internal resources 
of their country by the encouragement of home manu- 
factures ; and vigilance committees were appointed 
throughout the country to see that none of these regu- 
lations were evaded. The patriots in the New York 
Assembly endeavored to obtain the sanction of that 
body to the measures of the Continental Congress, but 
were overruled by the majority of conservatives ; yet, 
despite this dissent, the House addressed a remonstrance 
to Parliament so bold in its tone that the ministry 
refused its reception. The attempt to procure the 
indorsement of the resolves of Conorress was subse- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 479 

queiitly renewed with the same result, and on the 3d of 
April, 1775, the Assembly adjourned, never to meet 
again. A Committee of Sixty was appointed in the city 
of New York to enforce the observance of the aforesaid 
reo-ulations. An opportunity was soon offered them for 
action. On the 16th of February, the ship James of 
G-lasgow arrived with a cargo of goods, which the 
consignees attempted to land, but were prevented by 
the committee, who ordered the vessel to put to sea 
again immediately. This order was countermanded by 
the lieutenant of a man-of-war, then lying in the harbor, 
the captain of which happened to be on shore at the 
time. The latter was immediately seized by the com- 
mittee, and threatened with their vengeance if he did 
not at once retract the commands of his subordinate. 
Terrified by their menaces, he promptly obeyed, and 
ordered that the vessel should be suffered to return — 
a command which was speedily executed under the 
supervision of the committee. 

The Assembly ha\'ing refused to make any provision 
for the appointment of delegates to the Continental 
Congress, it was determined that they should be chosen 
by a Provincial Congress, composed of delegates from 
the respective counties. This Congress assembled on 
the 20th of April in the city of New York, and 
appointed five delegates to the Continental Congress, 
which convened at Philadelphia in the ensuing month. 
In this Provincial Congress — the first in New York — 
the city and county was represented by Isaac Sears, who 
had but recently escaped the imprisonment before 
suffered by McDougall. 



480 HISTORY OF THE 

A short time previous to this, the seveuty-four guu 
ship, Asia, had been ordered from Boston, and anchored 
off the Battery with her guns bearing on the town, 
while, at the same time, the troops stationed in New 
York and New Jersey had been transferred to Boston, 
to maiie room for the reinforcements which were daily 
expected. More barracks became needed in that city in 
conseqaence of this arrangement, but the governor 
found it impossible to induce any Bostonian either to 
furnish the materials or to aid in the erection. In this 
extremity, he applied to New York ; but the Sons of 
Liberty forbade the citizens to render any assistance 
under penalty of being considered as traitors to their 
country. Such traitors, however, were found, and the 
committee was soon apprised that a vessel had been 
fitted out with a cargo of boai-ds and straw for the 
barracks at Boston. Upon the receipt of this intelli- 
gence, a meeting was at once summoned upon the 
Commons, John Lamb and Marinus Willett were chosen 
chairmen, and it was resolved to seize the ship and 
to prevent her voyage. At this meeting, Sears was the 
chief orator, urging the people to arm and to supply 
themselves with twenty-four rounds of ammunition — 
a recommendation which was at once adopted. For 
this bold proposition. Sears was arrested on a warrant 
and carried before the mayor. Like his predecessor, 
McDougall, he refused to give bail, and was committed 
to prison, but was rescued on his way by the people, 
who bore him through the streets of the city in triumph, 
in ironical defiance of the legal authorities. 

On Sunday, the 24th of April, 1775, the news of the 



CITY 0/ NEW YORK. 481 

battle of Lexington reached the city. This was the sig- 
nal for open hostilities. Business was at once sus- 
pended ; the So .IS of Libert}^ assembled in large num- 
bers, and, taking possession of the City Hall, distributed 
the arms that were stored in it, together with a quantity 
which had been deposited in the arsenal for safe keeping, 
among the citizens, a party of whom formed themselves 
into a voluntary corps under the command of Samuel 
Broome, and assumed the temporary government of 
the city. This done, they demanded and obtained the 
keys of the Custom House, closed the building, and 
laid an embargo upon the vessels in port destined foi 
the eastern colonies ; then notified tlie members of 
the fraternity in the other cities of what they had done 
calling upon them to follow their example. 

It now became necessary to organize some provisional 
government for the city, and, -for this purpose, on the 
5th of May a meeting of the citizens was called at the 
Coffee- House, at which a Committee of One Hundred 
was chosen and invested with the charge of municipal 
affairs, the people pledging themselves to obey its orders 
until different arrangements should be made by the Con- 
tinental Congress.* This committee was composed in 

• This committee was composed of Isaac Low, chairman, John Jav, Francis 
Lewis, John AIsop, Philip Livingston, James Dnane, E. Duyckman, William Seton, 
William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clopper, Abraham Brinkerhoff, Ilcnry Remsen, 
Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P. Lott, David Beeckman, 
I^aac Roosevelt, Gabriel H. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick 
Jay, Samuel Broome, John De Lancey, Augustus Van Home, Abraham Duryec. 
Samuel Verplanck, Rudolphus Ritzema, John Morton, Joseph Hallet, Robert Ben- 
son, Abraham Braslier, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, P. V. B. Livingston, 
Thomas Marston, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazar Miller, jun., John Broome 
John B. Moore, Nicholas Bogert, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, William Goforth 

31 



482 HISTORY OF THE 

part of men inclined to the royalist cause, yet, such was 
the popular excitement at the time, that they were car- 
ried away by the current, and forced to .acquiesce in the 
measures of their more zealous colleagues. An address 
to the Lord Mayor and citizens of London, justifying the 
course which the colonists had taken, and assuring 
them that the city was ' ' as one man in the cause of 
" liberty," was drawn up and signed by most of the 
assembly. 

The committee at once assumed the command of the 
city, and, retaining the corps of Broome as their execu- 
tive power, proliibited the sale of weapons to any per- 
sons suspected of being hostile to the patriotic party. 
They also ordered that all the cannon of the city not 
belonging to the colony should be carried away, and 
appointed a sub-committee to inquire into the supply of 
arms and ammunition then in the city. Everything 
wore a martial appearance, the stores and workshops 
were closed throughout the town, and armed citizens 
paraded the streets, as if the city were in a state of siege. 
The moderate men of the committee succeeded in pre- 
v^ailing on their colleagues to present a placable address 
to Lieutenant-Grovernor Golden, explanatory of their 

Hercules Mulligan, Alexander McDougall, John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Jane- 
^ay, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas 
Smith, Richard Yates, Oliver Templeton, Jacobus Van Landby, Jeremiah Piatt, 
Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster BurUng, Benjamin Kissam, Jacob 
Lefferts, Anthony Van Dam, Abraham Walton. Hamilton Young, Nicholas Roose- 
velt, Cornelius P. Low, Francis Basset, James Beecl;man, Thomas Ivers, William 
Denning, John Berrien, Benjamin Helme, William W. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscomb, 
John Lamb, Richard Sharp, John Morin Scott, Jacob Van Voorhis, Comfort Sands 
Edward Fleming, Peter Goelet, Gerret Ketteltas. Thomas Buchanan, James Des 
biosses, Petrus Byvanck and Lott Embren 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 483 

appointment, and assuring him that they should use 
every effort to preserve the pubUc peace ; yet ominous 
precautions were taken to put the arms of the city in a 
serviceable condition, and to survey the neighboring 
grounds with a view to erecting fortifications. 

A rumor was now spread that a large body of troops 
were on their way to New York, and the people at once 
petitioned Lieutenant-Governor Golden to use his influ- 
ence with General Gage, at this time the commandant 
at New York, to prohibit their landing. The Conti- 
nental Congress, however, recommended that the troops 
should be permitted to land and take peaceable posses- 
sion of the city, but, on no account, should be suffered 
to erect fortifications, and also, that the warlike stores 
should be removed from the town, and a safe retreat 
secured for the women and children in case of a siege. 

Some time previous to this, a quantity of military 
stores belonging to the royal troops had been deposited 
at Turtle Bay, near the foot of Forty-seventh street on 
the North River, which the Liberty Boys now deter- 
mined to take into safe keeping. Headed by their dar- 
ing leader, John Lamb, they obtained a vessel from Con- 
necticut, sailed up to the storehouse under cover of the 
night surprised the guard, and carried off the booty, a 
part of which was dispatched to the army at Cambridge, 
while the rest was expended in the Northern campaign. 
A. boat belonging to the Asia was soon after destroyed 
by the people, but this act was disapproved by the com- 
mittee and the corporation, and the boat restored at the 
expense of the city ; and, anxious to prevent all future 
excesses, as well as to secure the people from possible 



484 HISTORY OF THE 

retaliation, the Provisional Congress requested General 
Wooster, who was hovering in the suburbs, to take up 
his head-quarters in the city, with which request he com- 
plied early in June, and encamped with his troops at 
Harlem. 

In tlie meantime, the expected troops had arrived and 
encamped in the city, whence they were soon afterwards 
ordered to repair to Boston. The Sons of Liberty urged 
that the whole regiment should be made prisoners, but 
the committee, who were not yet prepared for such a 
step, gave them permission to depart, stipulating that 
they should take with them nothing but their arms and 
accoutrements ; but, heedless of this order, they prepared 
to embark Avith all the spare arms in their possession. 
Intelligence of this proceeding was speedily conveyed to 
a knot of the Liberty Boys assembled at the tavern of 
Jasper Drake, in Water street near Reekman Slip, at 
that time a well-known rendezvous of the patriots, who 
at once determined to stop the embarkation, and hastily 
set out by different routes to rally their friends and take 
forcible possession of the weapons. Colonel Marinus 
Willett, who was one of the number, hastened to the 
Coffee-House to give public notice of the course deter- 
mined on by the party ; then proceeded through Water 
street to the Exchange at the lower end of Broad street, 
where he discovered the troops coming down the street, 
with five carts loaded with chests of arms in front 
under a smaU guard. Without a moment's hesitation, 
he advanced to meet them, and, coming in contact with 
them at the corner of Broad and Beaver streets, seized 
the horse that was drawing the foremost cart, anrl 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 4S5 

brought the whole company to a full stop. The major 
at once rode forward to learn what was the matter, upon 
which Willett informed him that the committee had 
given the troops no permission to carry arms out of the 
cit}', and that he intended to stop the proceeding. "While 
remonstrating with the officer, the mayor, who was 
strongly suspected of inclining to the side of the roy- 
alists, came up and ordered Willett to suffer the carts to 
pass, reprimanding him severely for thus disturbing the 
peace of the city, in which he was supported by Gou- 
verneur Morris, who happened to arrive at the same time, 
and who supposed that permission for the removal of 
the arms had been granted the troops by the committee. 
Staggered by this opposition, Willett was on the point of 
yielding, when John Morin Scott came up, and, catching 
the last words of his remonstrance with Morris, exclaimed 
in a loud voice, "You are right, Willett ; the committee 
" have not given them permission to carry off any spai'e 
" arms!" Hardly had the words been spoken when the 
intrepid colonel seized the horse's head, which he had 
let go in the strife, and, calling upon all of the soldiers 
who were unwilling to shed the blood of their country- 
men, to come from the ranks to the side of the people, 
turned the cart to the right, and ordered the carman to 
drive up Beaver street. A single soldier stepped from 
the ranks in compliance with the invitation. He was 
received with three hearty cheers by the crowd which had 
gathered about the scene of contention, then mounted on 
one of the carts and escorted in triumph to the corner 
of Broadway and John street, where the arms were 
deposited in the yard of Abraham Van Wyck, a stanch 



486 HISTORY OF THE 

Whig who kept a ball-alley at this place, which was a 
favorite resort of the Sons of Liberty. These arms were 
afterwards used by the first troops raised in New York 
by the order of Congress. The soldiers, meanwhile, 
were escorted to the wharf, where they embarked amid 
the hisses of the citizens.* 

Open hostilities had now commenced. Ticonderoga 
and Crown Point had been taken ; the battle of Bunker 
Hill had been fought, and George Washington had been 
appointed commander-in-chief of the American army. 
Yet the people had not yet grown to the idea of inde- 
pendence, and the Committee of Safety, when accused 
of the thought, indignantly repelled it as treasonable and 
preposterous, while even the Sons of Liberty freely 
acknowledged the right of England to regulate trade, only 
denouncing the principle of parliamentary taxation. On 
the 25th of June, Washington entered New York on his 
way from Mount Ycrnon to Cambridge to take command 
of the army assembled there. The Provincial Congress 
received him with a cautious address. Despite their 
patriotism, they still clung to the shadow of loyalty ; 
fearing to go too far, they acted constantly under pro- 
test that they desired nothing more than to secure to 
themselves the rights of true-born British subjects. The 
next morning, Washington quitted the city, escorted on 
his way by the provincial militia. Tryon had entered 
it the night before, and thus had been brought almost 
face to face with the rebel who was destined to work 
such a transformation in his majesty's colonies of 

• Sec WUIett'g Narrative, pp. 28-32. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 487 

America. The mayor and corporation received the 
returning governor with expressions of joy, and even the 
patriot party were glad of the change which reUeved 
them from the government of Golden. But the city had 
greatly changed during his absence. He had left it 
mutinous, yet anxious to obey him as far as was pos- 
sible, and always disposed to treat him with respect ; he 
found it in a state of open rebellion, preserving the 
semblance of loyalty without its substance, and far less 
disposed to yield obedience to his orders than to those of 
the Provincial Congress, now estabhshed among them. 

Meanwhile, the colony of New York had been ordered 
by the Continental Congress to contribute her quota of 
three thousand men to the general defence, and four regi- 
ments were accordingly raised, which were placed under 
the command of Colonels Alexander McDougall, Goosen 
Van Schaick, James Clinton, and Holmes. Of the first 
of these, which was raised fi'om the city of New York, 
Adolph Ritzma, the son of the domine of the Dutch 
Church, was lieutenant-colonel ; Frederic Wisenfelts, a 
Prussian of fine military talents, first captain, and Mari- 
nus Willett, second captain. A Swiss ofiicer, by the 
name of Zedwitz, served as major of the regiment ; both 
he and Ritzma afterwards proved traitors to their trust. 
John Lamb was appointed to the command of a com- 
pany of artillery, and Wiley, Oswald, Sears and others 
of the Liberty Boys entered the ranks, and soon after- 
wards set out on the Northern campaign. 

The city now presented a curious spectacle, as the 
seat of two governments, each issuing its own edicts, 
and denouncing those of the other as illegal authority. 



■488 HiSTOKr OF the 

It was not long before the two powers came into colli- 
sion. Regarding the guns on the Battery as dangerous 
to the patriot interest, and needing them for the forti- 
fications of the posts in the Highlands, the Provincial 
Congress directed their removal ; and, on the night of 
the 23d of August, Captain Lamb with a party of Liberty 
Boys and a number of citizens, among whom was 
Alexander Hamilton, proceeded to execute the order ; a 
part of the company remaining under arms while the rest 
were employed in removing the cannon. While thus 
engaged, a musket was discharged from the barge of the 
Asia, which had been stationed near the shore to recon- 
noitre. The fire was returned by Lamb and his company, 
killing one of the crew, and wounding several others, upon 
which the barge at once made her way to the ship. No 
sooner had she reached it than a heavy cannonading was 
opened on the town, riddling the houses near the Bat- 
tery, and severely wounding three of the citizens. The 
drum beat to arms ; a rumor was spread that the British 
intended to destroy the city, and many of the people fled 
with their wives and children in apprehension of the 
impending catastrophe. The intrepid Libei'ty Boys, 
meanwhile, cooll}' continued their task in the ftice of 
the enemy's fire, nor did they quit the Battery until the 
last of the twenty-one pieces had been carried away in 
safety. The next day, Captain Vandeput, the com- 
mander of the Asia, dispatched a letter to the mayor, 
complaining of the murder of one of his men, and 
demanding immediate satisfaction. A correspondence 
of mutual recrimination, resulting in nothing, ensued, and 
on the 29th of Ausust, the Provincial Congress issued 



CiTT OF NEW YORK. 489 

an order declaring that, as the Asia had seen fit to can- 
nonade the city, she must henceforth cease to receive 
suppUes from it, and must obtain them instead by the 
waj^ of Governor's Island. 

Hitherto, the governor had remained firm at his post ; 
but, finding his position daily growing more perilous, 
despite the pledges of the corporation for his personal 
safety, he determined to abandon the city, and took 
refuge on board the Asia ; from which he kept up a con- 
stant communication with his friends on shore, and insti- 
gated violent attacks on tlie Sons of Liberty through 
Rivington^s Gazette* the organ of the royalist party. 
Finding this journal becoming somewhat too scurrilous 
in its abuse, the Liberty Boys, after vainly remonstrating 
with the printer, directed Captain Sears to attend to the 
matter. Mustering a party of light-horse from Connec- 
ticut, he entered the city at noon on the 4th of Decem- 
ber, and, proceeding to the printing-office, forced open 
the doors, demolished the press, distributed the types 
through the windows, and effectually stopped the paper. 

* This journal, which was first issued by James Rivington on the 22d of April, 
1773, on a large medium sheet, folio, from the beginning warmly supported the 
cause of the British government, and received the support of the royalists through- 
out the country. After the destruction of his office, Rivington went to England, 
where he procured a new press, and obtained the appointment of king's printer for 
New York. After the conquest of the city by the British, he returned, and, on the 
4th of October, 1777, issued his paper anew, and continued it under the title of 
the Royal Gazette until the close of the war, when he discarded the royal arms from 
the title, which henceforth appeared as liivingtori' s Neiv York Gazette and 
Universal Advertiser. The paper, however, was regarded with coldness; and, dis- 
couraged by the want of popular faith in his conversion, in 1783, he discontinued 
its publication, and devoted himself exclusively to the sale of books and stationery. 
Ue also published several volumes, among which were Cook's Voyages. He waa 
rei'ai'led by liis contemporaries as a man of considerable ability. 



490 



HISTOEY OF THE 



Early in the spring of 1776, General Lee,* who had 
commanded the American forces at New York since the 
departure of Wooster, was ordered to Charleston, and 
General Putnam was left in sole command of the city. 
Putnam fixed his head-quarters at No 1 Broadway, in a 




Franklin Mansion : Pro-idiMit Washington's residence, Franklin Square. 



* Lee came to New York in January, 1776, with a force of twelve hundred men, 
and took up his head-quarters at the Kennedy House, the same afterwards occu- 
pied by Putnam. Previously to the departure of Washington for Philadelphia, he 
lodged while in the city at No. 184 Pearl street; upon his return, he removed 
to the Kennedy House, the favorite resort of the officers of the army. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 491 

house built by Captain Kennedy of the British army. On 
the 1-ith of April, Washington arrived, having succeeded 
hi expelling the British troops from Boston, and took up 
his quarters at Richmond Hill, in tlie vicinity of Varick 
and Charlton streets. The idea of independence was fast 
gaining ground, and those who would have shuddered at 
the thought a few months before, were now discussing 
the expediency of a total separation from the mother 
country. At this juncture, "Common Sense" was pub- 
lished in Philadelphia by Thomas Paine, and electrified 
the whole nation with the spirit of independence and 
liberty. This eloquent production severed the last link 
that bound the colonies to the mother-country ; it boldly 
gave speech to the arguments which had long been 
trembling on the lips of many, but which none before 
had found courage to utter, and, accepting its con- 
clusions, several of the colonies instructed their delegates 
in the Continental Congress to close their eyes to the 
ignis fatuus of loyalty, and fearlessly to throw off their 
allegiance to the crown. On the 7th of June, 1776, 
the subject was introduced into Congress by Richard 
Henry Lee, who offered a resolution declaring " that the 
"United Colonies ai'e, and ought to be, free and inde- 
" pendent States, that they are absolved from all alle- 
" giance to the British crown, and that their political 
"connection with Great Britain is and ought to be 
"totally dissolved." A spirited debate followed these 
resolutions. The delegates of several of the colonies^ 
New York among the rest, had received no instructions 
how to act in this emergency, and they drew back shi'ink- 
ingly from the perilous step which would condemn them, 



492 HISTORY OF THE 

if unsuccessful, to a traitor's doom. Seven of tlie thir- 
teen colonies voted in its favor. Aiined with this small 
majority, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Read, Shennan and 
Robert R. Livingston were appointed to draft a Declar- 
ation of Independence ; which, ou the -Ith of July, was 
adopted by Congress, and the British colonies trans- 
formed into the United States of America.- 

Ou the 10th of July, the news reached New York, 
where it was received with the greatest enthusiasm. 
Orders were immediately issued for the several brigades 
then in the city to meet on the Commons at six in the 
evening to hear the document publicly read. At the 
hour appointed, the soldiers ranged themselves in a hol- 
low square, within which was Washington on horseback 
with his aids, on the site of the present Park Fountain, 
to listen to the address which, for the first time, pro- 
claimed the United States a free and independent nation. 
The reading ended, the immense auditory burst into 
shouts of applause. The people, impelled by the new- 
born spirit of independence, rushed in a body to the 
City Hall, and, tearing the picture of George III. from 
its frame, rent it in pieces and trampled it under foot. 
Proceeding thence to the Bowling Green, they hurled 
from its pedestal the statue of the royal tyrant which 
they had set up in a fit of ill-judged enthusiasm a few 
years before, and dragged it in triumph through the 
streets of the city. The statue of Pitt escaped desecra- 
tion upon this occasion ; yet the people had lost much of 
their reverence for their former idol, and the statue had 
already received considerable mutilation from their 
bands. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 493 

Everything now indicated that the city of New York 
had been chosen by the enemy as the next point ot 
attack. On the 25th of Jnne, General Howe had 
arrived at Sandy Hook from Hahfax, and had hxnded on 
the 21st of July at Staten Island, where he found many 
partisans of the royal cause. Here he was joined a few 
days after by his brother, Admiral Lord Howe, from 
England, together with the forces of Clinton from the 
South, and thus placed in command of an army of 
twenty-four thousand of the best disciplined troops of 
England, besides the large reinforcements of Tories which 
flocked to his standard, and rendered him invaluable aid 
by their knowledge of the country. To oppose this 
formidable array, Washington had collected a force of 
twenty thousand raw militia — the best at his command — 
nearly one half of whom were invalids or detailed for 
other duty, while many more were destitute of arms and 
ammunition. 

The city, meanwhile, had been strongly fortified. On 
the southernmost point of the island was the Grand 
Battery, mounting twenty-three guns, with Fort George 
Battei-y, of two guns, immediately above it, in close 
proximity to the Bowling Green. The N^rth River 
shore was defended by McDougall's Battery, of four guns, 
on a hill a little to the west of Trinity Church ; the 
Grenadiers' or Circular Battery, of five guns, some dis- 
tance above, in the neighborhood of the brewhouse ; 
and the Jersey Battery, of five guns, to the left of the 
latter. On the East River shore were Coenties' Battery, 
of five guns, on Ten Eyck's wharf ; Waterbury's Battery, 
of seven guns, at the shipyards ; Badlam's Battery, of 



494 HISTORY OF THE 

eight guns, on Rutger's Hill, in the vicinity of the Jews' 
burial-ground in Chatham street ; and not far from 
that, Thompson's Battery, of nine guns, at Hoorne's 
Hook, and the Independent Battery on Bayard's 
Mount, now christened Bunker Hill, on the corner 
of Grand and Centre streets. Breastworks were 
also erected at Peck, Beekman, Burling, Coenties and 
Old slips ; * at the CofFee-House, and the Exchange : 
and in Broad and other streets of the city, and a line of 
circumvallation was stretched across the island from river 
to river. Fortifications were erected on Governor's 
Island, Paulus Hook, Brooklyn Heights, and Red Hook ; 
a line of works were thrown up on Long Island 
from Fort Greene at the Wallabout to Gowanus Creek, 
within which nine thousand men were encamped and the 
passages to the city, both by the North and East Rivers, 
were obstructed by chains and sunken vessels. The 
latter fortifications were erected under the superintend- 
ence of General Greene, who was intrusted with the 
command of the American forces on Long Island. 
General SuUivan was deputed as the assistant of Greene ; 



* These slips were simply openings between two wharTes, into which the wood- 
boats entered at high water and grounded there, that the cartmen might enter at 
low tide to unload them. There were at this time six slips on the East River 

shore Whitehall Slip, so called from the large white house, built by Stuyresant 

adjoining the slip; Coenties' (Coen and Antey's) so called from Conrad Ten Eyck 
and Jane, his wife, who lived in the house on Little Dock, now Pearl street 
adjoining the slip; Old Slip, the first in the city; Burling Slip, which derived it* 
name from Mr. Burling, i merchant on the corner of the Smit's Vly and Goldet. Hill . 
Beekman's Slip, so called from Mr. Beekman who resided on the southwest cornei 
of Pearl street and the slip, and Peck Slip, which received its name from Mr. Peck, 
at that time the owner of the lands in its vicinity. The only slip on the North 
River was at the foot of Oswego, now Liberty street. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 495 

General Nathaniel WoodhuU was directed to forage for 
the troops on Long Island, and Washington retained 
command of the forces in the city. 

Soon after the arrival of the British fleet at Stateu 
Island, Admiral Howe, who came commissioned by the 
British government to treat for peace with the rebels, 
as they were contemptuously termed, attempted tc 
open negotiations with the American forces, and, to this 
end, addressed a letter to "George Washington, Esq.," 
which Washington returned without reply. He then 
dispatched another, addressed to " George Washington, 
etc. etc.," which was also returned ; upon which the 
general, resolved never to acknowledge the military 
rank of a traitor, abandoned all hopes of an accommo- 
dation with the rebels, and turned his thoughts to 
a wai'like policy. 

At this critical juncture. General Greene fell danger- 
ously ill of a fever, and Washington, anticipating that 
New York and Long Island would be attacked simulta- 
neously, dispatched General Putnam to take command 
at the latter, with strict injunctions to guard the passes 
to the American camp, and by all means to hinder the 
advance of the enemy. For this, the position of the 
ground was well chosen. A range of thickly wooded 
hills, extending from the Narrows to Jamaica, and only 
accessible by three easily -guarded passes — the first, wind- 
ing round the western base of the Narrows ; the second, 
crossing the range by the village of Flatbush ; and the 
third, passing to the right through Flatlands and inter- 
secting the road which led from Bedford to Jamaica — 
separated the American lines from the expected landing- 



496 HISTORY OF THE 

place of the enemy at Graveseiid. Near these passes 
breastworks had been erected and three or four regi- 
ments stationed, while patrols were set to reconnoitre the 
roads and to give the earliest intelligence of the advance 
of the enemy. Trusting to the watchfulness of Lord 
Stirling and General Sullivan, Putnam, who knew nothing 
of the topography of the country, unwisely removed 
these patrols from their posts, and thus insured the 
defeat of the American army. 

Contrary to the expectations of AVashington, Howe 
determined to reach New York through Long Island, 
and on the 22d of August, passed over with four thou- 
sand men from Staten Island to Gravesend, where he 
landed without opposition. Other regiments, commanded 
by Earls Cornwallis and Percy, Sir William Erskine, 
Count Donop, and Generals Grant, De Heister, and 
Knyphausen soon followed, increasing the number to 
fifteen thousand men, who stretched along the eastern 
base of the hills, where they lay encamped for several 
days, rcconnoitering the ground and skirmishing with 
straggling scouting parties from the American lines. 

Clinton was not long in discovering the unguarded 
state of the passes through the hills. He at once com- 
municated the intelligence to Howe, a consultation was 
held by the generals, and a skillful ruse concerted for the 
plan of attack. On the evening of the 26th, De Heister, 
with the Hessians under his command, advanced along 
tlie road which led through the hills by the way of 
Flatlnish, while General Grant, with the left division of 
the army, took the lower road along the shore ; a manoeu- 
fre desiii'ued to divert the attention of Putnam, and thus 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 497 

enable Clinton with the main body of the army to skirt 
the hills by an easterly route, gain possession of the pass 
in the heights near Bedford, and thence turn the left of 
the American lines. The artifice was successful ; Putnam, 
apprised by advance parties of the advance of Grant 
and De Heister, dispatched a strong detachment under 
Lord Stirling to guard the lower road, and another under 
Sullivan to stop the progress of De Heister, and it waa 
not until the army under Clinton had gained the coveted 
position and opened a heavy fire upon Sullivan's rear, 
that the ruse was detected by the cheated general. Find- 
ing themselves thus completely hemmed in, the troops 
under Sullivan, after vainly attempting to break through 
the lines of the enemy, scattered in confusion and took 
refuge among the hills, where the greater portion with 
their commander were soon discovered and taken 
prisoners. 

The conflict at Gowanus creek was far more sanguinary. 
Posted wnth his troops on the slope of the hills north 
from Greenwood Cemetery, Lord Stirling maintained his 
ground against Grant, until the approach of Cornwallis 
with a large reinforcement warned him that further 
resistance would be in vain. Closely pressed by the 
enemy in front, and having in his rear the deep marsh 
and creek at Gowanus, eighty feet in width, two courses 
alone remained to him ; either to surrender at once to 
the enemy, or to attempt to escape across the creek, 
spanned only by the remnant of a half-burnt mill-dam. 
He gallantly chose the latter ; and, selecting four hun- 
dred men from the Maryland brigade to cover their 
flight, he ordered the remainder of his troops to retreat, 
32 



498 HISTORY OF THE 

then charged with fixed bayonets with this forlorn hope 
upon the brigade commanded by Cornwallis. Four times 
the desperate charge was repeated ; on the fifth, the 
enemy was on the point of yielding, when De Heister 
came up from the rout of Sullivan, and commenced an 
assault on the rear. This new onslaught determined the 
fortunes of the day. Stirling and a portion of the 
detachment surrendered themselves prisoners of war ; 
while the remainder resolutely cut their way through 
the ranks of the enemy, only to perish in the deep 
morass which ingulfed the most of their number. The 
loss of the Americans in this battle amounted to nearly 
twelve hundred men, a thousand of whom, including 
Lord Stirling and General Sullivan, remained prisoners 
in the hands of the enemy. On the day after the battle, 
General Woodhull was also captured while scouting at 
the southwest part of the island, and so severely 
hurt that he died of his wounds a short time after. 
About four hundred of the British were killed, wounded 
and taken prisoners. 

Encouraged by this success, the victorious troops 
advanced in front of the American lines, which had been 
reinforced during the battle by Washington in person 
with a large body of troops from the city, and made 
preparations for investing them in form. In tliis emer- 
gency, Washington summoned a council of his officers, 
and, by their advice, determined to evacuate the island. 
In order to conceal this resolution from the British, it 
was announced that boats were wanted to transport a 
detachment of the American troops to Hellgate in order 
to attack the enemy in the rear. At eight in the even- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 499 

ing of the 29th., the embarkation commenced under 
cover of a heavy fog and a fine, drizzling rain. To 
deceive the British, companies of troops marched and 
countermarched from the ferry to the lines while their 
comrades were embarking. At eleven o'clock, the wind, 
which had been unfavorable, suddenly changed, and the 
boats crossed rapidly, almost under the guns of the 
British fleet which was lying in the Upper Bay, ignorant 
of the easy escape of its prey. Nor was this the only 
danger to which the Americans were exposed ; a Tory 
who lived in close proximity to the ferry, dispatched a 
negro servant with the intelligence to Clinton ; but the 
slave was apprehended by a Hessian guard, who, not 
understanding his language, detained him until morning, 
then conducted him to headquarters, too late for his mes- 
sage. Washington, who for two days had scarcely quit- 
ted his saddle, superintended the retreat of his troops 
with intense anxiety, each moment expecting to see them 
discovered by the enemy. But the friendly fog screened 
them effectually, the boats rapidly crossed and recrossed 
in safety, and, by sunrise the next morning, the whole 
army of nine thousand men, with their prisoners, bag- 
gage, and stores, together with most of the wounded, 
were safely landed on the opposite shore. The fog 
continued till a late hour the next morning, when the 
British scouts, suspecting that all was not right from 
the dead silence which reigned in the camp, drew 
nearer and nearer the American line.* By and by, one, 
more daring than the rest, crept cautiously within 

' See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incident?, pp. 130-131. 



500 HISTORY OF THE 

the works, and finding them abandoned, gave the 
alarm, upon which the British army rushed in and 
hastened to the ferry, just in time to witness the 
escape of their foes. 

Thinking this a favorable moment for winning back 
the colonies to their allegiance, Howe opened a negotia- 
tion with the Continental Congress, promising pardon to 
all who would la}^ down their arms, together with a 
repeal of the obnoxious laws in which the struggle had 
originated. But this concession came too late ; the 
people had grown into a spirit of self-government, and, in 
the conference which was subsequently held on Staten 
Island, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Francis 
Rutledge, the commissioners appointed by Congress for 
the negotiation, refused to treat for peace on any other 
terms than the full and entire acknowledgment of the 
independence of the colonies. This, of course, was 
inadmissible. Seeing that no terms could be made with 
Congress, Howe issued a proclamation repeating the 
offer to the peojDle, then proceeded at once to invest the 
city. 

Notwithstanding the fortifications which had been 
erected, it was evident to all that the city could not 
maintain a siege against the British on the neighboring 
islands and the ships of war which held the harbor in 
blockade, and on the 12th of September, Washington 
called a council of war, and reluctantly detei'mined to 
abandon it to its fate. The military stores were at once 
ordered to be removed across the Harlem River, a con- 
siderable force was stationed at Kingsbridge, Putnam 
was left with a force of four thousand men in the cit} 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 501 

and Washington withdrew with the main body of the 
army to Harlem Heights.* 

AVhat was next to be done ? was a question which 
Washington put to himself, but could gain no reply. 
The British had complete possession of both rivers ; they 
could ascend when they pleased, and, landing above liim, 
hem him in and insure the destruction of his army, for 
resistance would be in vain with such unequal forces ; 
could attack the city at once, or could cross over from 
Long Island and attack him when they thought proper. 
That he would eventuallj'- be forced to evacuate the 
island, he foresaw clearly — to evacuate it too soon would 
be to yield an important advantage to the enemy ; to 
linger too long would be to surrender his army. His 
own conduct must depend on the movements of Howe, 
yet with all his endeavors he had failed to procure the 
slightest clue to these movements. In this emergency, 
it was resolved, in a council of war, to send a trusty 
man to penetrate the enemy's ranks in disguise and 
obtain the desired information, and Nathan Hale, a 
young officer in the regiment of Knowlton, volunteered 
to undertake the dangerous mission. He passed over to 
Long Island, penetrated the enemy's lines, made drawings 
of his works, and gained full intelligence of the projected 
movements of the army. On his return lie was recog- 
nized as belonging to the American army, and at once 

* After his retreat from the city, Washington first fixed his quarters at the 
house of Robert Murray on Murray Hill, whence he issued his instructions to Nathan 
Hale, and where he was on the day preceding the landing of Howe. On the 
15th, he was at Mott's Tavern, at the corner of One Hundred aud Forty-third street 
and Eighth Avenue. He subsequently resided at the house of Col. Roger Morris, 
on the shore of the Harlem River. 



502 HISTORY OF THE 

arrested and conveyed to the Beekman House, on tlie 
corner of Fifty-first street and First avenue, now the 
head-quarters of General Howe, who, since his departure, 
had taken possession of the island. Here he was tried, 
convicted as a spy, and sentenced to be hung the next 
morning at day-break. He was at once delivered over 
to the notorious Cunningham, the Provost-Marshal of 
the Revolution, who confined him for the night in the 
green-house of the garden, refusing his prayer for a 
light and writing materials that he might write for the 
last time to his parents and friends. Through the influ- 
ence of the lieutenant, these were afterwards furnished 
him ; but, in the morning, Cunningham savagely tore the 
letters in pieces before his eyes, declaring that the rebels 
should never know that they could die with so much 
firmness ; and ordered the prisoner to immediate execu- 
tion, demanding, as a last refinement of cruelty, that he 
should make a dying speech and confession. " I only 
" regret that I have but one hfe to lose for my country," 
was the calm reply of the doomed patriot. These were 
his last words ; the next moment he was suspended on 
an apple-tree in the orchard, whence his bones were 
thrust into a nameless grave. The tragedy cast a deep 
gloom over the army, in which Hale was universally 
beloved ; while the heartlessness with which the affair 
was conducted must ever remain a stigma on the name 
of the British general. 

Soon after the departure of Hale on his perilous mis- 
sion, the British ships advanced up the rivers, and under 
cover of their fire, which swept across the island, Howe 
landed at Kip's Bay at the foot of Thirtv-sixth street. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 503 

The guard stationed there to prevent liis landing fled 
without striking a blow, followed by the two Connecticut 
brigades under the command of Generals Parsons and 
Fellows, which had been sent to their suppoi't. On 
hearing the firing, Washington immediately rode to the 
scene of action, which he reached just in time to catch a 
■glimpse of the vanishing bi'igades. "Are these the men 
" with whom lam to defend America !" exclaimed he, 
indignantly dashing his hat upon the ground, as he saw 
himself thus deserted by his recreant soldiers. His aids 
hurried him from his perilous position, and, seeing that 
the island was irretrievably lost, he retired with his 
forces to Kingsbridge, sending orders to Putnam to evac- 
uate the city. In the meantime, Howe advanced to the 
centre of the island, and, encamping on Incleuberg Hill, 
made preparations to stretch a cordon across the island 
and thus insure the capture of the troops still in the city. 
The retreat of Silliman's brigade,* which, by some 

* The following affidavit, copied from the original in the possession of Abraham 
Tomlinson, Esq., Poughkeepsie, N. Y., seems to indicate that Putnam waa 
separated from and considerably in the rear of the retreating brigade : 

" Hezekiah Ripley of said Fairfield doth certify that on or about the 15th day of 
" September, 1776, I was the officiating chaplain of the brigade, then commanded by 
" Geul. Gold S. Silliman. From mismanagement of the commanding officer of that 
" Brigade, was unfortunately left in the city of New York, and, at the time before 
" mentioned, while the Brigade was in front and myself considerably in the rear, I 
" was met by Genl Putnam, who then informed me of the landing of the enemy 
" above us, and that I must mak« my escape on the west side of the Island, where- 
" upon, I, on foot, crossed the lots to the west side of the Island unmolested. 
" excepting by the fire of the ships of war, at the time lying on the North River. 
" How the Brigade escaped, I was not an eye witness. 

" IlEZEKiAn Ripley, 
" Afterwards one of the Trustees of Yale College 
" Sept. 26, 1776." 



504 HISTORY OF THE 

unaccountable error, remained too long in the city, was, 
indeed, eflected almost by a miracle. Hastily rallying at 
Bunker Hill, under the supposition that all the avenues 
were in the possession of the enemy, they had just deter- 
mined to make a bold stand and sell their lives as dearly 
as they could, when Colonel Burr, at this time one of the 
aids of Putnam, came up to extricate them from the diffi- 
culty by his superior knowledge of the country. Guiding 
them by a cross-road from Bunker Hill to a new road, 
recently cut through the hills on the line of Broadway, 
he led them along the edge of a swamp to the woods 
which surrounded the house of Robert Murray, at 
Incleuberg Hill, and, passing thence up the Greenwich 
Road, reached the Apthorpe House on the road to 
Bloomingdale, where Washington was impatiently await- 
ing their arrival. In the meantime, Howe, Clinton, Tryon 
and a few othei'S had halted for refreshment at the Mur- 
ray House, where, beguiled by the smiles and the choice 
wines of the Quaker hostess, who had received a hint 
from Washington to intercept and detain them as long as 
possible, they lingered in forgetfulness of the enemy they 
now deemed a certain prey, until a soldier rushed in, 
panting for breath, to tell them that the brigade had 
passed almost within their grasp, and was now advanc- 
ing up the Bloomingdale road. To mount and pursue 
them was the work of an instant. Fifteen minutes after 
Washington had quitted the Apthorpe House, it was 
tilled with British troops ; but the few minutes' delay 
had saved the retreating soldiers. At ten minutes after 
three, the colors were struck in New York, and General 
Robertson with his foi'ces took possession of the city. 



CITY OF N K W YORK. 505 

The two armies, separated by Harlem Plains, 
encamped for the night ; the one on the heights between 
Manhattanville and Kingsbridge, the other in a line 
between Hoorne's Hook and Bloomingdale. Early the 
next morning, two parties, under the command of Colonel 
Knowlton and Major Leitch, were detached by Washing- 
ton with orders to gain the rear of a body of British 
troops stationed on Tandewater's Heights (on the site of 
the present Bloomingdale Asylum) while dispositions 
were made to attack them in front ; but, by some mis- 
take, a fire was opened upon them before the rear was 
gained, and, warned of their danger, they made good 
their retreat to the main body of the army. 

By way of retaliation, Howe ordered a detachment to 
push forward through McGowan's Pass and attack the 
American lines. They were met by Colonel Knowlton 
at the foot of a rocky gorge between the Eighth and 
Ninth Avenues, near the line of One Hundred and 
Twenty-fourth street, who drove them into a cleared 
field about two hundred rods distant, where they took 
shelter behind a fence and continued the contest. It was 
not long before they were forced from this position ; 
and, retreating to a buckwheat field four hundred yards 
distant, they made a stand on the summit of a high hill, 
where, joined by a reinforcement of Hessians, they 
fought for two hours with great spirit, but were finally 
forced to retreat for the third time to another hill near 
the British lines.* The main body now prepared to 

• Vide Dunlap's Hist, of New York, vol ii., pp. 11, IS, Lossing'g Field Book of the 
Revolution, vol. ii., pp. 817-819, and Dawson's Battles of the United States by Se» 
and Land, pp. lGO-16'.i. 



OOG mSTOEY OF TUE 

advance to their aid, when "Washington, not wishing to 
risk a general engagement, prudently retreated, with the 
loss of sixteen of his men, among whom was the gallant 
Colonel Knowlton. Major Leitch was also so severely 
hurt that he died of his wounds a few weeks after. 
The loss of the British, as acknowledged in the official 
report, was fourteen killed and seventy-eight wounded. 
Clouded as it was by the loss of two valuable officers, the 
success of this skirmish greatly inspired the Americans, 
who had been much depressed by their last defeat. A 
few days after. Major Thomas Henly fell in an unsuccess- 
ful attack upon the British forces under the command of 
General Heath, which were stationed at Moutresor's, 
now Randall's, Island. 

For several weeks, Washington retained his position 
in the high grounds above Manhattanville, residing at 
the house of Col. Roger Morris, on Harlem Heights, near 
Carmausville, late Madame Jumel's. Not caring to risk a 
direct attack, Howe withdrew the greater part of his 
forces from the island and landed them at Throg's Point 
in Westchester County, with a view to cutting off all com- 
munication from the eastern States ; while, at the same 
time, he dispatched three frigates up the Hudson River to 
intercept all supplies from the southern and western 
shftres. Forced by this movement to evacuate the island, 
Washington detached a garrison of three thousand men 
for the defence of Fort Washington, and proceeded with 
the remainder of his forces to White Plains, whei'e, on the 
28th of October, a spirited action took place in which he 
lost nearly four hundred of his men ; then, fearing a 
speedy repetition of the attack, he withdrew to the almost 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 507 

impregnable heights of North Castle. No longer daring 
to pursue the main body of the army, Howe now 
retraced his steps across Kingsbridge, and proceeded to 
invest the garrison at Fort Washington. 

This fort, which was but the centre of the fortifica- 
tions on this part of the island, stood on the shores of 
the North River about two and a half miles below 
Kingsbridge. The position was a strong one ; the hill 
was steep and difficult of access on all sides but the 
south, which was commanded by the fort ; and sur- 
rounded on all sides by redoubts and batteries. Three 
lines of intrenchments, a mile in lengtli, extended across 
the island from the Harlem to the North River ; the first 
in the vicinity of One Hundred and Fifty-first street : 
the second about half a mile further north ; and the third 
westward from Colonel Morris' house along the line of 
One Hundred and Seveijtieth street ; but the works 
were unfinished and defended only by a few old pieces 
of artiller}' ; while, to maintain them properly, an army 
would have been needed instead of the handful of men 
detailed for their defence. Colonel Magaw, who was in 
command at the station, remained in the fort ; Colonel 
Rawlins, with his regiment of riflemen, occupied a redoubt 
to the north and also a small breastwork on the southern- 
most part of the island, overlooking Spuyten DuyveJ 
Creek ; Colonel Baxter, with the militia under his com- 
mand, was posted along the heights of the Harlem River 
opposite Fort "Washington ; Colonel Cadwalader, with a 
force of eight hundred men, was stationed at the lowei 
lines which crossed the island, and the rest of the troops 
were distributed among the other redoubts and breast- 



•508 HISTORY OF THE 

works at Manhattanville and along the Kingsbi-idge 
Road. 

On the 15th of November, a summons to surrender 
was sent to the garrison by Adjutant-General Patterson 
of the British army, which was peremptorily refused by 
Magaw. Early on the following morning, a heavy can- 
nonade was opened upon the positions of Colonels 
Rawlins and Cadwalader, and about ten o'clock, a large 
body of the enemy, headed by Lord Percy and preceded 
by their field-pieces, appeared on Harlem Plains and 
advanced to attack Cadwalader, who held them in check 
for more than an hour and a half, while Washington, 
with Putnam, Greene and Mercer, crossed the river from 
Fort Lee, and after examining the ground, returned 
again to his intrenchments. 

At noon, the riflemen of Colonel Rawlins were 
attacked by the Hessians under Knyphausen, and, after 
defending themselves with great bravery until their rifles, 
through frequent charging, became useless in their hands, 
were forced to retreat to the fort, whither Knyphausen 
pursued them, and intrenching himself behind a large 
storehouse in the vicinity, summoned Magaw again to 
surrender. Finding his position hopeless beyond redemp- 
tion, the commander gave a reluctant assent, and sur- 
rendered himself and the garrison, twenty-seven hun- 
dred in number, as prisoners of war. 

Lord Percy, in the meantime, had been reinforced by 
a detachment under the command of Colonel Sterling, 
which had descended the Harlem River in bateaux, and 
landed in the rear of Cadwalader. After defeating the 
parties under Captains Lenox, Edwards and Tudor, which 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 50£ 

had been detailed to oppose their landing, the new 
troops advanced to the heights near Morris' house, and, 
seconding the efforts of Percy, forced Cadwalader to 
retreat to Fort Washington, where he was at once made 
prisoner by the British, now in possession of the fort. 
A few minutes after, the troops of Colonel Baxter, 
who had been di-iven from their ground with the 
loss of their leader by General Mathew and Lord 
Cornwallis, came in, and were also made prisoners of 
war ; and at half-past one the British flag wa,ved 
triumphantly over the fort in token of the undisputed 
sovereignty of the island. About fifty of the Americans, 
among whom were Colonels Baxter and Miller, and 
Lieutenants Harrison and Tannihill, were killed in this 
engagement ; one hundred were wounded, and nearly 
three thousand made prisoners of war. The loss of Fort 
Washington was soon followed by that of Fort Lee; 
Washington retreated with his troops through the 
Jerseys, and the struggle for liberty in New York was 
over. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



New York during the Occupation of the Royalists — The British Prisons and Pi.sou Ships 
of New York. 

The city now lay prostrate in the hands of its captors. 
Those of the Sons of Liberty who had escaped imprison- 
ment had fled to rejoin the Northern army, or the 
patriots who were struggling almost hopelessly in the 
Jerseys, and their place was filled by a host of Tories 
from the neighboring counties. The Provincial Con- 
gress, abandoning the city, held secret meetings, armed 
and in disguise, at various towns in the suburbs, con- 
stantly changing their place of rendezvous to avoid the 
vigilance of the Toiy spies who infested the neighborhood. 
Westchester, between Croton River and Fordham— the 
neutral ground — swaiinecl with Cow Boys and Skinners; 
the former, the avowed friends of King George ; the 
latter, ready to attach themselves for the moment to the 
party which might offer the greatest hopes of plunder. 
To guard against the machinations of these, a Committee 
of Safety, with John Jay at the head, was appointed by 
the Provincial Congress, the adventures of which were 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 511 

fraught with incidents which shame the wildest tales of 
romance. Intrigue was thwarted by intrigue ; plot was 
met by counterplot. All trust in man was destroyed in 
the dark and terrible struggle ; the most intimate 
friends, the nearest relatives, were arrayed on opposite 
sides in the strife, and none dared be sure that the most 
trusted acquaintance, the kindest neighbor, might not be 
laying a snare to dehver him up to an ignominious 
death from the hands of his enemies. Each party endea- 
vored to elude the suspicions of the other, and to lure 
the unwary within the American lines or to decoy them 
within reach of the British at New York. 

The city, meanwhile, became then and henceforth the 
headquarters of the British army in America, and the 
residence from time to time of its princijDal officers. 
General Howe took up his abode in the Kennedy House 
at the lower end of Broadway. General Knyphausen 
took possession of a large house in Wall street. The 
Hessians under his command were encamped at Corlaers 
Hook, whence a line of intrenchments was thrown up 
on the Bowery Lane to Bunker's Hill ; while the bar- 
racks, the hospital and the empty houses of the Whigs 
who had fled for safety were filled with the British sol- 
diers. The Beekman House in Hanover Square became 
the residence of the naval officers arriving at the station; 
there Admiral Digby afterwards dwelt, with the sailor 
prince William Henry- — the future William IV. — under 
his charge. 

About five thousand prisoners were now in the hands 
of the British, comprising those who had been captured 
at Long Island and Fort Washil^gton, together with 



512 HISTORY OF THE 

many who had been brought in by privateers ; and as 
New York was henceforth the British prison-house, this 
number received constant accessions during the war. 
The privates were crowded into the public buildings ; 
the sailors were conveyed to the loathsome prison-ships 
which lay, first in the North River opposite the lower 
end of the island, and afterwards at the Wallabout ; and 
the officers were required to give their parole, then suf- 
fered to lodge in the town under the strict surveillance 
of the British guard. This permission was in many 
instances afterwards recalled, and the officers committed 
to tlie old Provost, the receptacle of the prisoners of 
superior rank. Among these officers were Colonels 
Magaw, Rawlins, Allen, Ramsey, Miles and Atlee , Majors 
Bird, West, Williams and De Courcey ; and Captains 
Wilson, Tudor, Edwards, Forrest, Lenox, Davenport, 
Herbert and Edwards, with many others. 

The city became emphatically a city of prisons. Every 
available building was transformed into a dungeon for 
the soldiers of the American army, who, under the super- 
vision of the infamous provost-marshal, Cunningham, 
with his deputy O'Keefe, and the commissaries Loring, 
Sproat and others, were treated with almost incredible 
barbarity. The pews of the North Dutch Church in Wil- 
liam street were torn out and used for fuel ; a floor was 
laid from one gallery to another, and eight hundred 
prisoners were incarcerated within its walls. Here they 
were allowed neither fuel nor bedding, their provisions 
were scanty and of the poorest quality, and many died 
from cold and starvation. "The allowance," says Adolph 
Myer, of Lasher's battalion, who had been taken prisoner 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 618 

at Montresor's Island, and afterwards imprisoned here 
" was one loaf of the bread left on tlie evacuation 
"of Xew York (and which had been made for an 
" allowance of three days), one quart of peas, half a 
■' pint of rice, and one and a half pounds of pork for 
' ' six days. Many prisoners died from want, and others 
" were reduced to such wretchedness as to attract 
" tlie compassion of common prostitutes, from whom 
" they received considerable assistance. No care was 
" taken of the sick, and if any died, they were thrown at 
"the door of the prison, and lay there till the next day, 
"when they were put on a cart and drawn out to tlie 
" intrenchments, beyond the Jews' burial-ground, wliere 
" they were interred by their fellow-prisoners, conducted 
"thither for that purpose. The dead were thrown into 
"a hole jiromiscuously, without the usual rites of sepul- 
" ture." 

The Brick Church in Beekman street was at first used 
as a prison, then converted into a hospital for the sick 
among the prisoners. The Friends' Meeting-house in 
Pearl street and the Presbyterian Church in Wall street 
were also used as hospitals, and the French Church in 
Pine street was transformed into a depot for militaiy 
stores. 

The Middle Dutch Church, the future Post-Office, 
was also stripped of pulpit and pews, and made to 
furnish room for three thousand prisoners. " Here," 
says John Pintard, an eye-witness -of the scene, "the 
" prisoners taken on Long Island and at Fort Washing- 
" ton — sick, wounded and well — were all indiscriminately 
"huddled together by hundreds and thousands; large 

33 



014 HISTORY OF THE 

■ ' numbers of whom died by disease ; and many were un- 
" doubtedly poisoned by their inhuman attendants for the 
"sake of their watches or silver buckles." The inmate? 
were subsequently transferred to the other prisons, and 
the church was converted into a riding-school, to train 
dragoon horses. The glass was taken from the windows 
and the shutters left unhung, the floor was taken up and 
the ground covered with tan-bark ; and a pole was 
placed across the middle for the horses to leap over. 

Just to the east of this, in Liberty street, stood the 
old Sugar-house, built in the days of Leisler ; a grey 
stone building, five stories in height, with thick walls, 
and small, deep windows, which now became one of the 
gloomiest of the improvised dungeons of the city. Each 
story was divided into two rooms, with ceilings so low 
and windows so small that the air could scarce find 
entrance under the most favorable conditions. A pon- 
derous, jail-like door opened on Liberty street to the 
courtyard — a broad, flagged walk about the building, 
through which two British or Hessian soldiers were 
constantly pacing, night and day. On the southeast, 
a heavy door opened into a dismal cellar, also used 
as a prison. The yard was surrounded by a close board 
fence, nine feet high. In this forbidding prison-house, 
secured by massive locks and bars, the wretched prison- 
ers were huddled so closely that they could scarcely 
breathe, and left for many weary months, without fire 
or blankets and with no other clothes than those which 
they had worn on their entrance, to while away the 
hours of their captivity by carving their names upon the 
walls with rusty nails — often the only clue to their 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 515 

probable fate ; for the typhus fever raged fiercely among 

them, and the dead-cart paid its daily visits, bearing 

away the writers ere they could finish the rude epitaphs, 

thus left as the sole trace to their friends of their doom. 

" In the suffocating heat of summer," says Dunlap, the 

contemporary historian of the times, " I saw every narrow 

" aperture of those stone walls filled with human heads, 

" face above face, seeking a portion of the external air." 

" While the jail fever was raging in the summer of 1777," 

says Onderdonk, in his " Incidents of the British 

Prisons and Prison-ships at New York," "the prisoners 

' were let out in companies of twenty, for half an hour 

' at a time, to breathe the fresh air ; and inside they 

' were so crowded, that they divided their numbers into 

' squads of six each. No. 1 stood ten minutes as close 

' to the window as they could crowd, and then No. 2 

' took their places, and so on ; seats there were none ; 

' and their beds were but straw, intermixed witlr ver- 

' min. For many weeks, the dead-cart visited the 

' prison every morning, into which from eight to twelve 

' corpses were flung and piled up, then dumped into 

' ditches in the outskirts of the city." An interesting 

reminiscence of this prison, as well as of the hospitals of 

the city — the more interesting from being one of the few 

descriptions on record of the treatment which the sick 

received in these hospitals — is found in the narrative of 

Levi Hanford, of Walton, Delaware County, New York. 

Entering the army in the autumn of 1775, at the early 

age of sixteen, he was one of the company sent by Lee, 

in the spring of 1776, to break ground for the first 

fortifications erected on Governor's Island. In March. 



•516 HISTORY OF THE 

1777, he was surprised and captured by a party of 
Tories while on guard at Long Island Sound, and taken 
first to Huntington, then to Flushing, and thence to 
New York, where he was incarcerated in the old Sugar- 
house in Liberty street. 

" The old prison," says he, " was a stone building, 
" six stories high ; but the stories were very low, which 
" made it dark and confined. It was built for a sugar 
" refinery, and its appearance was dark and gloomy. 
" while its small and deep windows gave it the appear- 
" ance of a prison, which it really was, with a high board 
" fence inclosing a small yard. "We found at this time 
" about forty or fifty prisoners, in an emaciated, starv- 
" ing and wretched condition. Their numbers were 
■' constantly being diminished by sickness and death, 
■' and as constantly increased by the accession of new 
"prisoners, to the number of 400 or 500. Our allow- 
" ance of provisions was pork and sea-biscuit ; it would 
" not keep a well man in strength. The biscuit was 
" such as had been wet with sea-water and damaged, 
" was full of worms and moldy. It was our common 
" practice to put water in our camp-kettle, then break 
" up the biscuit into it, skim off the worms, put in the 
" pork, and boil it, if we had fuel ; but this was allowed 
" us only part of the time ; and when we could get no 
" fuel, wc ate our meat raw and our biscuit dry. 
"' Starved as we were, there was nothing in the shape of 
" food that was rejected or was unpalatable. Crowded 
"together, in bad air and with such diet, it was not 
" strange that disease and pestilence should prevail. 
I had not been long there, before I was taken with the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 517 

" smallpox, and conveyed to the Smallpox Hospital. 
" I had it light, and soon returned to the prison, but not 
" till I had seen it in its most malignant forms. Some 
" of my companions died in that hospital. When I 
" returned to the prison, others of our company had 
" been taken to the different hospitals, from which few 
" returned. I remained in prison for a time, when, 
" from bad air, confinement, and bad diet, I was taken 
" sick, and conveyed to the Quaker Meeting Hospital, so 
" called from its being a Quaker Meeting-house. 

" I soon became insensible, and the time passed 
" unconsciously till I began slowly to recover health and 
" strength, and was again permitted to exchange these 
" scenes of disease and death for the prison. On my 
'' return, I found the number of our companions still 
'' further reduced by sickness and death. During all 
" this time, an influence was exerted to induce the men 
" to enlist in the Tory regiments. Although our suffer- 
" ings were intolerable, and the men were urged by 
" those who had been their own townsmen and neigh- 
" bors, who had joined the British, yet the instances 
" were rare that they could be influenced to enlist. 
" So wedded were they to their principles, that they 
" chose honorable death rather than to sacrifice them. 
" I remained in the prison till the 24th of October, when 
" the names of a company of prisoners were taken down, 
" and mine among the rest. It was told us that we 
" were going home. We drew our week's provision, 
" which, by solicitation, we cheerfully divided among our 
" starving associates whom we were to leave in prison. 
' But whether it was to torment and aggravate our feel- 



518 HISTORY OF THE 

ings, I know not ; but this I do know, that, instead of 
going home, we were taken from the prison, and put on 
board one of the prison-ships (the Good Intent) lying 
in the North River, and reported there with one week's 
provision. The scene of starvation and suffering that 
followed cannot be described ; everything was eaten 
that could appease hunger. From this and other 
causes, and crowded as we were, with over two hun- 
dred in the hold of one ship, enfeebled as we had 
become, and now reduced by famine, pestilence began 
to sweep us down, till, in less than two months, we 
were reduced by death to scarcely one hundred. In 
addition to all this, we were treated with the utmost 
severity and cruelty. In December, when the river 
began to freeze, our ship was taken round into the 
Wallabout, where lay the Jersey, another prison-ship 
of terrihc memory, whose rotted hulk remained till 
lately to mark the spot where thousands yielded up 
their lives a sacrifice to British cruelty. 
" The dead from these ships were thrown into the 
trenches of our fortifications ; and their bones, after 
the war, were collected and decently buried. It was 
here that Ethan Allen exhausted his fund of curses 
and bitter invectives against the British, as he passed 
among the prisoners, and viewed the loathsome dens 
of suffering after his return from his shameful 
imprisonment in England.* Here again I was taken 
sick and ray name taken down to the hospital. The 
day before New Year's, the sick were placed in a boat 

• See Ethan Allen's Xarrative, pp. 93-102. 



CITY OF NEW YOKK. 519 

" for the city ; she had lost a piece of plank from her 
" bottom ; but it was filled up with ice, and we were taken 
" in tow. From the motion, the ice soon loosened, and 
" the boat began to leak ; and before we had gone far, 
" the sailors inquired if we leaked. Our men, from pride, 
" and not to show fear, replied but a mere trifle ; but 
" they soon perceived our increased heft, pulled hard for 
" a time, and then lay to until we came up. Our boat 
" was half filled with water. When they saw it, they 
" cursed us, and pulled for the nearest dock, shouting for 
" help. When the boat touched the dock, she struck 
"level with the water, and we held on with our 
" hands to the dock and a small boat by our side to 
" keep from sinking. It was low water, and the sailors 
" reached down from the dock, clenched hold of our 
" hands, and drew us up. I remember that I was drawn 
" up with so much violence, that the skin was taken from 
" my chest and stomach. One poor fellow that could not 
" sit up, we had to haul on the gunnel of the boat 
" to keep his head out of water ; but he got wet and died 
" in a few minutes after he was got on shore. We were 
" taken to the hospital in Dr. Rogers' Brick Meeting- 
" house (afterwards Dr. Spring's) near the foot of the 
" Park. From the yard, I carried one end of a bunk, 
" from which some person had just died, into the church, 
" and got into it, exhausted and overcome. The head 
" nurse saw my condition. She made me some tea, and 
" pulled the blankets from the sick Irish, regardless of 
" their complaints or curses, and piled them on me, till I 
" sweat profusely and fell asleep. When I awoke in the 
" morning, they gave me some mulled wine and water. 



520 HISTORY OF THE 

" Wine and some other things were sent in by our gov- 
" ernment for the sick ; the British furnished nothing. I 
" then lay perfectly easy and free from jDain, and it 
" appeared to me that I never was so happy in my life, 
" and yet so weak that I could not get out of my bunk, 
" had it been to save the Union. The doctor (who was 
" an American surgeon and a prisoner, had been taken 
"out of prison to serve m the hospital) told me that 
" my blood was breaking down and turning into water 
" from the effects of the small pox. He said I must 
" have some bitters. I gave him what money I had, and 
" he prepared some for me ; and when that was gone he 
" had the kindness to prepare some for me once or twice 
" at his own expense. I began slowly to gain, and finally 
" to walk about. While standing one day in March by 
" the side of the church, in the warm sun, my toes began 
" to sting and pain me excessively. I showed them to 
" the surgeon when he came in ; he laid them open ; they 
'' had been frozen, and the flesh wasted till onlj^the bone 
' and the tough skin remained. I had now to remain 
' here for a long time on account of my feet. And of 
" all places, that was the last to be coveted ; disease and 
" death reigned there in all their terrors. I have had 
" men die by the side of me in the night, and have seen 
" fifteen dead bodies sewed up in their blankets and laid 
" in the corner of the yard at one time, the product of 
■' one twenty-four hours. Every morning, at 8 o'clock, 
" the dead-cart came, the bodies were put in, the men 
" drew their rum, and the cart was driven off to the 
" trenches of the fortifications that our people had made. 
" Once 1 was permitted to go with the guard to the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 521 

'■ place of interment, and never shall I forget the scene 
" that I there beheld ; they tumbled them into the ditch 
" just as it happened, threw on a little dirt, and then 
" away. I could see a hand, a foot, or part of a head, 
" washed bare by the rains, swollen, blubbering, and 
" falling to decay. 

" I was now returned to the prison, and from this 
" time forward I enjoyed comfortable health to the close 
"of my uiiprisonment, which took place in the May fol- 
" lowing. One day, as I was standing in the yard near 
" the high board fence, a man passed in the street close 
" to the fence, and without stopping or turning his head, 
" said in a low voice, ' General Burgoyne is taken with 
" ' all his army ; it is a truth, you may depend upon it.' 
" Shut out from all information as we had been, the news 
"was grateful indeed, and cheered us in our wretched 
" prison. Knowing nothing of what was taking place 
" beyond the confines of our miserable abode, we had 
'' been left to dark forebodings and fears as to the result 
" of our cause, and the probabilities of our government 
" being able to exchange or release us. We knew not 
■' whether our cause was progressing, or whether resist- 
'• ance was still continued. Our information was 
" obtained only through the exaggerations of the British 
" soldiery. But this gave us the sweet consolation that 
" our cause was yet triumphant, and the hope of final 
" liberation. Had our informant been discovered, he 
' might have had to run the gauntlet, or lose his life for 
" his kindness." 

Such were the horrors of the Old Sugar-house in Lib- 
erty street. lUiinelander's and the other sugar-houses 



522 HISTORY OF THE 

in the city were also filled with prisoners, but as the 
Old Jersey ranked foremost among the prisoii-ships, this 
seems to have taken the precedence of all the rest. 
Columbia College was used as a prison for a short time 
only. The City Hall was converted into a guard-house 
for the main guard of the city, the dungeons below 
being filled with prisoners. During the latter part of 
the war, the court-room in the second story was granted 
to the refugee clergy for service in lieu of their churches. 
Another prison was the Bridewell, in the Commons, a 
cheerless, jail-like building of grey stone, two stories in 
height, with a basement and pediment in front and reai , 
which is still remembered by many of our citizens. This 
building had been erected in 1775, just in time to serve 
as a dungeon for the patriots of the Revolution. At 
this time, it was scarcely finished, the windows were yet 
unglazed, with nothing but iron bars to keep out the cold ; 
yet, despite the excessive inclemency of the weather, 
more than eight hundred of the unfortunate prisoners of 
Fort Washhigton were thrust within its walls on the day 
of the capture and left there for three days without a 
mouthful of food. " We were marched to New York," 
says Oliver Woodruff, one of the prisoners, who died 
not long since at the age of 90, " and went to difler- 
" ent prisons — eight hundred and sixteen went into 
"the New Bridewell, I among the rest; some into 
" the Sugar-house ; others into the Dutch Church. 
" On Thursday morning, they brought us a little pro- 
" vision, which was the first morsel we got to eat or drink 
" after eating our breakfast on Saturday morning. We 
" never drew as much provision for three days allowance 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



523 




CITY OF NEW TORK. 525 

" as a man would eat at a common meal. I was there 
" three months during that inclement season, and never 
" saw any fire, except what was in the lamps of the city. 
" There was not a pane of glass in the windows, and 
"nothing to keep out the cold except the iron grates." 
This statement is confirmed by N. Murray, who says that 
the doctor gave poison powders to the prisoners, who 
soon died. Every indignity which human ingenuity could 
invent was heaped upon the wretched prisoners in the 
furtherance of the policy which hoped thus to crush the 
spirit of the army by disabling those that had been taken 
prisoners for future service and terrifying the remainder 
by the possibility of a similar fate. In the first part of 
of their project they succeeded but too well ; on the 6th 
May, 1778, when an exchange of some of the prisoners 
took place, of the three thousand men who had been cap- 
tured at Fort Washington, but eight hundred were report- 
ed as still living. But this wanton cruelty only deepened 
the indignation of the patriots ; instead of bringing them 
humbled and submissive to the feet of Great Britain, it 
estranged them more widely from the once loved mother 
country, and forever destroyed all hope of reconciliation. 
The most notorious dungeon, perhaps, of all, was the 
New Jail or Provost, so called from having been the 
headquarters of the infamous Cunningham, the provost- 
marshal of the Revolution. Through tlie influence of 
General Gage, he had succeeded to this post on the 
retirement of WiUiam Jones in 1775, and from the fact 
that he retained it until the close of the war, we may 
judge that his conduct was pleasing to his superiors. 
The injuries which he had received the preceding year a1 



526 HISTORY OF TUE 

the foot of the Liberty-Pole, had never been forgotten, 
and he eagerly availed himself of this opportunity to 
wreak his vengeance on his defenceless prisoners. 
Among these were the most distinguished of the American 
captives ; Ethan Allen, the hero of Ticonderoga ; Majors 
Wells, Payne, and WilUams ; Captains Randolph, Fla- 
haven, Vandyke, Mercer, and Bissell ; John Fell, a 
member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, with 
many other prominent men and officers, who, after 
having been released on parole, had been arrested again 
upon frivolous pretexts and thrown. into a dungeon with 
the vilest criminals, where their brutal jailer heaped 
every possible indignity upon them, even amusing the 
young English officers, who were his frequent guests, at 
the conclusion of their drunken orgies, by parading his 
helpless prisoners through the courtyard of the jail as 
specimens of the rebel army. Not content with seeing 
them die a slow death from cold and starvation, he is said 
to have poisoned man}^ by mingling a preparation of 
arsenic with their food, then continued to draw their 
rations as before, giving rise to the sarcasm that he fed 
the dead and starved the living ; and to have boasted that 
he had thus killed more of the rebels with his own hand 
than had been slain by all the king's forces in America. 
The cruelty practised towards the inmates of the Provost 
and the other prisons of the city rivals all that may be 
found in the annals of Christendom, and stamps the gene- 
ral who permitted it with far deeper disgrace than the 
subordinate who was only the instrument of his will. 
Mr. Pintard, one of founders of the New York Historical 
Society, at that time a young man, the clerk of his uncle, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



527 



Elias Boudinot, who had been appointed Commissioner 
of Pi'isons by the Continental Congress, has left us a 
graphic picture of the scenes of which he was himself 
an eye witness. 




The New Juil, now tie Hall nf Reeords. 



"The Provost," says he, in a puljlislied document, 
was destined for the more notorious rebels, civil, naval, 
and military. An admission to this modern Bastile was 
enough to appall the stoutest heart. On the right hand 

■ of the main door, was Captain Cunningiiam"s quarters, 

■ opposite to which was the guard-room. Within the 



528 HISTORY OF THE 

" first barricade was Sergeant O'Keefe's apartment. At 
■'the entrance door, two sentinels were always posted. 
" day and night ; two more at the first and second bar- 
" ricades, which were grated, bai-red, and chained, also at 
" the rear door, and on the platform at the grated door 
" at the foot of the second flight of steps, leading to 
" the rooms and cells in the second and third stories. 
" When a prisoner, escorted by the soldiers, was led into 
" the hall, the whole guard was paraded, and he was 
" delivered over with all formalit}' to Captain Cun- 
" ningham, or his deputy, and questioned as to his 
" name, rank, size, age, etc., all of which were entered 
" in a record-book. What with the bristling of arms, 
" unbolting of bars and locks, clanking of enormous iron 
" chains, and a vestibule as dark as Erebus, the unfortu- 
" nate captive might well sink under this infernal sight 
" and parade of t3'rannical power, as he crossed the 
" threshold of that door which probably closed on him 
" for life. 

"The northeast chamber, turning to the left, on the 
■'second floor, was appropriated to officers and charac- 
" ters of superior rank and distinction, and was christened 
" Congress Hall. So closely were they packed, that 
"when their bones ached at night from lying on the 
"hard oak planks, and they wished to turn, it could 
"only be done by word of command, 'Right, Left,' 
" being so wedged and compact as to form almost a solid 
" mass of human bodies. In the day-time, the packs and 
"blankets of the prisoners were suspended around the 
" walls, every precaution being used to keep the rooms 
"ventilated, and the walls and floors clean, to prevent 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 529 

"jail-fever, and as the Pi-ovost ^Yas generally crowded 
" with American prisoners or British culprits of every 
"description, it is really wonderful that infection never 
" broke out in its walls." 

The following graphic list of the grievances endured 
by the prisoners, which was sent to General Jones by 
Mr. Pintard, reveals a terrible tale of suffering : " Close 
confined in jail, without distinction of rank or charac- 
ter ; amongst felons (a number of whom are under 
sentence of death), without their friends being suffered 
to speak to them, even through the gates. On the 
scanty allowance of 2 lbs. hard biscuit and 2 lbs. raw 
pork per man per week, without fuel to dress it. Fre- 
quently supplied with water from a pump where all 
kinds of filth is thrown that can render it obnoxious 
and unwholesome (the effects of which are too often 
felt), when good water is as easily obtained. Denied 
the benefit of a hospital ; not allowed to send for medi- 
cine, nor even a doctor permitted to visit them when 
in the greatest distress ; married men and others who 
lay at the point of death, refused to have their wives 
or relations admitted to see them, who, for attempting 
it, were often beat from prison. Commissioned officers 
and other persons of character, without a cause, thrown 
into a loathsome dungeon, insulted in a gross manner, 
and vilely abused by a provost marshal, who is allowed 
to be one of the basest charactei's in the British army, 
and whose power is so unlimited that he has caned an 
officer on a trivial occasion, and frequently beats the 
sick privates when unable to stand, many of whom are 
daily obliged to enlist in the new corps to prevent 
34 



530 HISTORY OF THE 

" perishing for the necessaries of life. Neither jien, ink 
"nor paper allowed (to prevent their treatment being 
"made public), the consequence of which, indeed, the 
"prisoners themselves dread, knowing the malignant 
"disposition of their keeper." 

These statements are amply confirmed by the testi- 
mony of eye-witnesses as well as of the sufferers them- 
selves ; and it is not strange that the name of Cunning- 
ham became a by-word of horror in the annals of the 
times. It was afterwards reported and currently 
believed that he was executed at Newgate for forgery ; 
and a dying speech and confession, purporting to be his, 
was published in 1791 in a Philadelphia paper and 
copied thence into the Boston journals of the day ; but 
the Newgate Calendar, examined by Mr. Bancroft, con- 
tains no recofd of any such name. The Americans were 
willing to beUeve all things possible from a man who 
had shown himself capable of such barbarity, and rumors 
of this sort found ready credence. But the odium of this 
cruelty must forever rest on Howe, who was cognizant 
of all its details, and to whom the provost marshal was 
but a tool — a cat's paw, as he is called by the indignant 
Ethan Allen — to execute his vengeance upon the detested 
rebels. The sufferings of the captives excited universal 
sympathy, and considerable aid was afforded them by 
the citizens ; yet this was not encouraged by the British 
commandant, and Mrs. Deborah Franklin was even 
banished from the city in 1780 for her unbounded 
liberality to the American prisoners. Remonstrances 
would have been in vain. The American officers who 
were free on parole shrunk from visiting the pi'isons to 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 531 

witness the sufferings which they could not reUeve, and 
dared not appeal to Howe for aid, lest this audacity 
should doom them to a similar fate. In 1777, after the 
successes of Washington in New Jersey, a portion of the 
prisoners were exchanged ; but, exhausted by suffering, 
many fell dead in the streets ere they reached the vessels 
destined for their embarkation, and few long survived 
their return to their homes. The churches and sugar- 
houses were gradually cleared of their inmates during 
the course of the war, but the Provost and the 
old City Hall were used as prisons till Evacuation Day. 
"I was in New York, Nov. 2Gth," says Gen. Johnson, 
" and at the Provost about ten o'clock a.m. A few 
" British criminals were yet in custody, and O'Keefe 
" threw his ponderous, bunch of keys on the floor and 
" retired, when an American guard relieved the British 
"guard, which joined a detachment of British troops, 
" then on parade in Broadway, and marched down to the 
" Battery, where they embarked for England." 

Not less deplorable was the condition of the sailor- 
captives on board the loathsome prison-ships.* The first 
of these vessels were the freight-ships which brought 
the British troops to Staten Island in 1776 ; in these, as 



* For further details respecting the prisons as well as the prison-ships of New 
York, the reader is referred to " Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen's Captivity," Burling- 
ton, 1838; " Onderdonk's Incidents of the British Prisons and Prison-Ships at 
■' New York," New York, 1849; " Life of Jesse Talbot ;" "Life of Ebenezer Fox, of 
" Roxbury," Boston, IS'iS ; " Recollections of the Jersey Prison-Ship," by Capt. 
Thomas Dring, Providence, 1829 ; " The Old Jersey Captive," by Thomas 
Andros, Boston, 1833; "The Interment of the Remains of 11,500 American 
" Prisoners .at the Wallebocht," New York, 1808 ; Freneau's " Poem on the Prison- 
" Ship," and Gaines', Rivington's, and other papers of the day. 



532 UISTORT OF THE 

they lay anchored at Gravesend Bay, the pi'isoners taken 
at the battle of Long Island were confined fo) a few 
days until the conquest of the city, when they were 
transferred thither and the vessels reserved for the cap- 
tured seamen. The Good Hope and Scorpion were then 
anchored in the North River off the Battery, whence the 
bodies of the prisoners who died were conveyed to 
Trinity Churchyard for bui'ial. Some time after, they 
were taken round to the East River and moored in the 
Wallabout Bay, where a dozen old hulks, among which 
were the Good Hope, Whitby, Falmouth, Prince of Wales, 
Scorpion, Strombolo, Hunter, Kitty, Providence, Bristol, 
Jersey, etc., lay anchored in succession, usually two or 
three at a time, to serve as floating prisons for the British 
commanders. Of all these, the Jersey gained the greatest 
notoriety; christened "the hell afloat " by her despair- 
ing inmates, her name struck terror to the hearts of 
every American sailor. A 64-gun ship which had been 
condemned in 1776 as unfit for service, she had been 
stripped of her spars and rigging and anchored at 
Tolmie's Wharf to serve as a storeship. In 1780, when 
the prisoners on board the Good Hope burnt the vessel 
in the desperate hope of regaining their liberty, the 
chief incendiaries were removed to the Provost, and the 
remainder transferred to the Jersey, which was thence- 
forth used as a prison-ship until the close of the war, 
when her inmates were liberated, and she was henceforth 
shunned by all as a nest of pestilence. The worms soon 
after destroyed her bottom, and she sunk, bearing with 
her on her planks the names of thousands of American 
prisoners. For moi-e than twenty years, her ribs lay 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 533 

exposed at low water ; she now lies buried beneath the 
United States Navy Yard. 

Though the Jersey has gained a bad eminence as a 
prison-ship, which would naturally lead many to suppose 
that her prisoners alone were subjected to suffering and 
privation, the testimony of those confined in the other 
hulks proves clearly that their treatment was every- 
where the same. The chief difference lay in the fact 
that the Jersey was larger than the others, and con- 
tinued in the service for a longer space of time. David 
Sproat, the British Commissary, denied, indeed, that any 
suffering existed, and, painting the situation of the 
captives in glowing colors, brought documents signed by 
them to testify to the truth of his assertions ; but as 
these were forced from them almost at the point of the 
bayonet, and universally retracted as soon as they were 
free, the papers in question are not worth much in 
evidence. 

The life on board the Jersey prison-ship may be 
regarded as a fair sample of the life on all the rest. 
The crew consisted of a captain, two mates, a steward, 
cook and a dozen sailors, with a guard of twelve marines 
and about thirty soldiers. When a prisoner was brought 
on board, his name and rank were registered, after 
which he was searched for weapons and money. His 
clothes and bedding he was permitted to retain ; how- 
ever scanty these might be, he was supplied with no 
more while on board the prison-ship. He was then 
ordered down into the hold, where from a thousand to 
twelve hundred men were congregated, covered with 
rags and filth, and ghastly from breathing the pesti- 



534 HISTORY OF THE 

lential air ; many of them sick with the t3-phus fever, 
dysentery and smallpox, from which the vessel was 
never free. Here he joined a mess of six men, who, 
every morning, at the ringing of the steward's bell, 
received their daily allowance of biscuit, beef or pork 
and peas, to which butter, suet, oatmeal and flour were 
occasionally added. The biscuit was moldy and lite- 
rally crawling witJi worms, the butter and suet rancid 
and unsavory to the highest degree, the peas damaged, 
the meal and flour often sour, and the meat tainted, and 
boiled in the impure water from about the ship in a large 
copper kettle, which, soon becoming corroded and 
crusted with verdigris, mingled a slow poison with all 
its contents. Yet for these damaged provisions, the 
highest prices were charged to the king by the royal 
commissioners, who, by curtailing the rations and substi- 
tuting damaged provisions for those purchased bj^ the 
government, amassed fortunes at the expense of thou- 
sands of lives ; and, when accused, forced their prisoners 
by threats of still greater severity, to attest to the kind 
treatment which they received at their hands. 

The prisoners were confined in the two main decks 
below ; the lower dungeon being filled with foreigners, 
who were treated with even more inhumanit}' than the 
Americans. Every morning the prisoners were aroused 
with the cry, '' Rebels, turn out your dead V The 
order was obeyed, and the bodies of those who had died 
during the night were brought up upon deck and placed 
upon the gratings. If the deceased had owned a 
blanket, any prisoner was at Hberty to sew it around the 
corpse, after which it was lowered into a boat and sent 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 535 

on shore for interment. Here, a hole was dug ni the 
sands, and the bodies hastily covered, often to be disin- 
terred at the washing of the next tide. 

The prisoners were suffered to remain on deck till 
sunset, when they were saluted with the insulting cry of 
"'Down, rebels, dow7i!" This order obeyed, the main 
hatchway was closed, leaving a small trap-door, large 
enough for one man to ascend at a time, over which 
a sentinel was placed, with orders to permit but one 
man to come up at a time during the night. These 
sentinels were often guilty of the most wanton cruelty. 
William Burke, a prisoner for fourteen months in the 
Jersey, says that one night while the prisoners were 
huddled about the grate at the hatchway to obtain fresh 
air, awaiting their turn to go on deck, the sentinel 
thrust his bayonet among them, killing twenty-five of 
their number ; and that this outrage was frequently 
repeated. But these acts of cruelty, instead of crushing 
the spirit of the rebels, as their enemies had fondly 
hoped, only incited them to new acts of daring ; those 
already free, fought with the more desperation, choosing 
rather to face death than the dreaded prison-ship ; while 
the prisoners, constantly seeking to escape, cherished 
life that they might one d ly take vengeance for their 
sufferings. How terrible sometimes was the retribution, 
may be gleaned from the following extract from the 
Life of Silas Talbot : 

" Two young men, brothers, belonging to a rifle 
" corps," says the author of the narrative, " were made 
" prisoners, and sent on board the Jersey. The elder 
" took the fever, and in a few days became delirious. 



536 HISTORY OF THE 

' One night (his end was fast approaching) he became 
' calm and sensible, and, lamenting his hard fate and 
' the absence of his mother, begged for a little water. 
' His brother, with tears, entreated the guard to give 
' him some, but in vain. The sick youth was soon in 
' his last struggles, when his brother offered the guard 
' a guinea for an inch of candle, only that he might see 
' him die. Even this was refused. ' Now,' said he, 
' drying up his tears, ' if it please God that I ever 
' regain my liberty, I'll be a most bitter enemy.' He 
' regained his liberty, rejoined the army, and when the 
' war ended, he had eight large and 127 small notches 
' on his rifle-stock !" 

To prove that the Jersey prison-ship was not an 
exceptional one, we will quote the testimony of pri- 
soners on board the others. Freneau has given a 
graphic poetical account of his treatment on board the 
Scorpion and the hospital-ship.* Another says : " The 

* We subjoin as a curiosity the following extract from Freneau's poem on the 
" Prison Sliip " — a work which is now exceedingly rare : 

" Two hulks on Hudson's stormy bosom lie. 
Two further south affront the pitying eye ; 
There the black Scorpion at her moorings rides, 
There, Strombolo swings, yielding to the tides, 
Here bulky Jersey fills a larger space, 
And Hunter, to all hospitals disgrace. 
Thou, Scorpion, fatal to thy crowded throng. 
Dire theme of horror and Plutonian song, 
Requir'st my lay — thy sultry decks I know, 
And all the torments that exist below. 
The briny wave that Hudson's bosom fills. 
Drained through her bottom in a thousand rills ; 
Rotten and old, replete with sighs and groans, 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 537 

' greatest iuliumanity was experienced in a ship, of 
which one Nelson, a Scotchman, luid the superintend- 

' ence (the Good Hope, afterwards burned by the pri- 
soners, described by Sproat as the best prison-ship in 
the world). Upwards of three hundred were contiiied 

Scarce ou the waters she sustains her bones. 
Here, doomed to toil, or founder in the tide, 
At the moist pumps incessantly we ply'd ; 
Here, doomed to starve, like famish'd dogs we tore 
The scant allowance that our tyrants bore. 
When to the ocean dives the western sun. 
And the scorch'd Tories fire their evening gun, 
' Dovm, rebels, down /' the angry Scotchmen cry, 
' Damned dogs, descend, or by our broadswords die /' 
Hail dark abode ! what can with thee compare ? 
Heat, sickness, famine, death and stagnant air — 
Swift from the guarded decks we rush'd along, 
And vainly sought repose — so vast our throng. 
Three hundred wretches here, deny'd all light, 
In crowded mansions pass th' infernal night. 
Some for a bed their tattered vestments join. 
And some on chests, and some on floors recline ; 
Shut from the blessings of the evening air, 
Pensive we lay with mingled corpses there ; 
Meagre and wan, and scorch'd with heat below, 
We look'd like ghosts, ere death had made us so. 
How could we else, where heat and hunger join'd, 
Thug to debase the body and the mind, 
Where cruel thirst the parching throat invades, 
Dries up the man, and fits him for the shades ? 
No water ladled from the bubbling spring. 
To these dire ships the war-made monsters bring ; 
By planks and pond'roug beams completely wall'd, 
In vain for water, and in vain, I eall'd — 
No drop was granted to the midnight prayer, 
To Dives in these regions of despair ! 
The loathsome cask a deadly dose contains, 
Ita poison circling through the languid veins. 



538 HISTORY OF THE 

" at a time on board. There was but one small fire- 
" place to cook the food of such a number, and the 
"allowance was moreover frequently delayed. In the 
" short days of November and December, the steward 
" did not begin to serve out the rations till 11 a.m., so 

generous Britons I generous, as you say, 
To my parch'd tongue one cooling drop convey , 
Earth knows no torment like a thirsty throat, 
Nor hell a monster like your David Sproat /" 

Frcneau was afterwards transferred to the hospital-ship Hunter, where he thus 
describes his treatment : 

" From Brooklyn groves a Hessian doctor came, 
Not great his skill, nor greater much his fame ; 
Fair Science never call'd the wretch her own. 
And Art disdained the stupid man to own; 
Yet still he doom'd his genius to the rack. 
And, as you may suppose, was owned a quack. 
He, on his charge, the healing work begun 
With antimonial mixtures by the ton. 
Ten minutes was the time he deigned to stay — 
The time of grace allotted once a day — 
He drench'd us well with bitter draughts, 'tis true, 
Nostrums from hell and cortex from Peru — 
Some with his pills he sent to Pluto's reign, 
And some he blistered with the flies of Spain ; 
His cream of Tartar walked in deadly round, 
'Till the lean patient at the poison frown'd. 
And swore that hemlock, death, or what you will. 
Were nonsense to the drugs that stuffed his bill. 
On those refusing, he bestowed a kick. 
Or menaced vengeance with his walking-stick; 
Here, uncontroU'd he exercised his trade. 
And grew experienced by the deaths he made ; 
By frequent blows we from his cane endur'd 
He killed at least as many as he cur'd. 
On our lost comrades built his future fame, 
And scattered fate where'er his footsteps came." 



CITY OF NEW YOUK. 539 

" that the whole could not be served till 3. At sunset 
" the fire Avas ordered to be quenched, so that some 
" had not then- food dressed at all ; many were obliged 
'• to eat it half raw. No flour, oatmeal, and things of 
" like nature, suited to the condition of infirm people, 
" were allowed to the many sick — nothing but ship- 
" bread, beef and pork." " I am now a prisoner," says 
another, " on board the ship Falmouth in N. Y., a place 
' the most dreadful ; we are so confined that we have 
'■ not room even to lie down all at once to sleep." 

But we need not multiply corroborative statements 
to prove the horrors of the loathsome prison-ships. 
Negotiations were opened for the exchange of prison- 
ers, and a long correspondence between Sproat and 
Abraham Skinner, the American commissary, ensued 
which amounted to little more than mutual recrimina- 
tion. The captives being mostly privateersmeu, inde- 
pendent of the Continental service, Congress was 
unwilling to release healthy British prisoners in ex- 
change, and thus give to the enemy a great and per- 
manent strength, without receiving an equivalent. By 
the agreement between the armies, officers were to be 
exchanged for officers, soldiers for soldiers, and seamen 
for seamen. The Americans, however, had few naval 
prisoners ; those captured by the privateers had been, 
for the most part, enhsted into the service, or suffered to 
go at large for the want of a suitable place wherein to 
secure them. Washington, who had no control over the 
marine department, remonstrated earnestly with Sir 
Henry Clinton and Admiral Digby against this inhuman 
treatment, and threatened to retaliate on the British 



540 HISTORY OF THE 

soldiers, but his protests were of little avail. The rebels 
were urged by threats and promises to enter into 
the British service. A few complied, trusting to the 
chances for a speedy desertion, while many more perished 
in the midst of darkness and privation, preferring death 
to a seeming infidelity to their country. It is estimated, 
we doubt if on sufficient authority, that eleven thousand 
were buried from the Jersey alone. Despite the 
vigilance of the guard, escapes were frequent, and a 
whole mess would sometimes suddenly be found miss- 
ing without having given the slightest indication of 
their departure. After the arrival of Sir Guy Carlton, 
in the closing days of the war, a few of the pri- 
soners were released on parole, but the condition of the 
majority remained substantially the same until the final 
cessation of hostilities. In marked contrast with this, 
the British prisoners were invariably treated with kind- 
ness and humanity, and though retaliation was some- 
times threatened, the threat was never in a single 
instance carried into execution. But the treatment of 
American prisoners at New York, connived at if not 
sanctioned by the British commandants, must forever 
remain a stain upon the boasted civilization of England. 
On the 21st of September, 1776, while Howe's troops 
were still stretched in a cordon across the island, in 
readiness to fall upon the army of Washington, encamped 
upon the heights on the opposite side of Harlem Plains, 
a fire occurred, which reduced the greater portion of 
the city to ashes. The conflagration broke out in a 
small wooden grog-shop near Whitehall Slip, whence it 
swept rapidly up Broad and Beaver streets to Broad- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 641 

way, and thence consumed all the western part of the 
town. The progress of the flames was at length stayed 
by the college grounds at Barclay street; but ere this 
was done, five hundred houses fell in ruins to the ground 
Trinity Church and the neighboring Lutheran chapel, on 
the site of the future Grace Church, were destroyed, while 
St. Paul's Church was only saved by the unremitting 
exertions of the citizens, who mounted on the roof and 
extinguished the flakes of fire as they fell. No engines 
were at that time to be had in the city, and the people 
could only stand idly by and witness the work of destruc- 
tion. Intense excitement prevailed among the British, 
who accused the Sons of Liberty of being the incendi- 
aries, and even seized a number of the patriots and thrust 
them into the flames by way of revenge for the supposed 
outrage. Several of the citizens were also arrested and 
imprisoned on the charge of bemg accessories to the 
deed, but the accusations were not sustained, and they 
were afterward acquitted of the charge. No evidence 
exists, indeed, to prove that the origin of this fire was 
anything else than purely accidental, or that the sus- 
picions of the British officers had any foundation. 

Much of the burned district had been covered with 
small wooden houses, tenanted by the lowest classes of 
society. Driven from their wretched homes by the fear- 
ful conflagration, and not knowing where else to find 
shelter, the miserable inmates tacked sheets of canvas to 
the remnants of charred walls and standing chimneys, 
thus forming a city of tents, in which they bivouacked, 
despite the inclemency of the weather, and the spot 
henceforth became known as Canvastown — a sort of 



•542 HISTORY OF THE 

progenitor of the present Five Points, the haunt ot 
crime and misery. 

A few days after the fire. Cadwalladcr Golden, who 
had for so many years played a prominent part in the 
affairs of the city, died at the advanced age of eighty- 
nine. He was a man of preeminent talent and of fine 
scientific attainments ; the literature of the province had 
been greatly enriched by his valuable contributions, and, 
previously to the role which he was insnared to play 
in the drama of the Revolution, he had been loved and 
honored by the people. This false step was the only 
stain on his career ; he succumbed to the temptation of 
private interests, and sacrificed the welfare of his coun- 
trymen to the arbitrary maintenance of the royal pre- 
rogative. Nor was he alone in this apostasy; many other 
scions of ancient and distinguished families espoused the 
cause of the king in the struggle, and openly ranged 
themselves among the Tories. Foremost among these 
was Oliver De Lancey, brother of the former lieutenant- 
governor of the province, and one of the most zealous 
adherents of the royalist party. Inferior in talent to 
his brother, haughty and imperious in manners, yet pos- 
sessing an almost diabolical knowledge of human nature, 
with an adroitness in using it which was rarely ex- 
ceeded, he became a formidable enemy to the patriotic 
cause, and an object of detestation to the Liberty Boys ; 
a party of whom, headed by the daring and impetuous 
Martling, came down from the American lines on the 
night of the 25tb of November, 1777, and burned his 
house at Bloomingdale, by way of i-evenge for his infi- 
delity to his country. At the close of the Revolution. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 543 

his estates, as well as those of his nephew, James De 
Laucey, were confiscated by the government ; after 
which, he went to England, where he died, leaving 
numerous descendants. 

Many of the Tories who had been expelled from the 
surrounding country by the vigorous measui-es of the 
Committee of Safety, now removed to New York and 
took up their residence there. Rivington, returned to 
the city and recommenced the publication of his paper, 
now the Royal Gazette; while Holt was driven with his 
journal from place to place along the North River. Hugh 
Gaine still continued to publish his Gazette, more than 
ever devoted to the interests of the royalist party. 

During the winter. General Howe made New York 
his headquarters, from which lie dispatched detach- 
ments by land and sea to harass the American forces. 
It was not long before General Lee was seized as ho lay 
carelessly guarded at a considerable distance from the 
army, and brought a prisoner to the city, where he was 
lodged in one of the dungeons of the City Hall in Wall 
street. Lee was a born Englishman, and, on this ground 
was claimed by Howe as a deserter from the British 
army. "Washington made the most urgent eflbrts to 
obtain his release, and, as he held no prisoner of equal 
rank in his hands, offered in exchange for him six Hes- 
sian field-officers ; but these terms were refused bv 
Howe, who threatened to send him to England for trial. 
" As you treat Lee, so shall the Hessians be treated," 
was the reply; and fearing the consequences, the British 
general dared not carry his threat into immediate execu- 
tion, but kept him closely guarded, awaiting tlie moment 



544 HISTORY OF THE 

when the destruction of the American army, which 
seemed to him inevitable, should enable him to punish 
the culprit with impunity. He waited in vain ; the 
surrender of Burgoyne, in the following autumn, 
proved the fallacy of these hopes, and he finally con- 
sented to the offered terms. A negotiation was also 
opened for the exchange of the rest of the American 
prisoners, but this failed of any result. Worn and 
debilitated by unwholesome food and inhuman treatment, 
the captives were wholly unfit for service, and Washington 
was unwilling to nullify his recent brilliant victoines in the 
Jersej's by restoring to the British ranks a large corps 
of able and efficient Hessians in equal exchange for 
soldiers rendered useless beyond all hope of cure by the 
brutalities which they had endured in the British prisons. 
Humanitj- would have dictated the measure ; policy for- 
bade it. Washington vainly endeavored to effect their 
release on more equitable terms, and held a long corre- 
spondence with Howe upon the subject ; but the latter 
remained immovable, and the prisoners were condemned 
to linger many more weary months amid the horrors of 
captivity. 

In A2:>ril, 1777, the Convention assembled at Kingston 
framed the first written constitution of the State of New 
York. By this constitution, the office of governor was 
made elective by the people, and the legislative power 
was vested in two distinct bodies, deriving their author- 
ity from the same source. George Clinton, already dis- 
tinguished for his patriotism in the annals of the province, 
was chosen the first governor — an office which he con- 
tinued to hold for eighteen years. John Jay was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



545 




forualt of John Jay, Irum iLe Uiigiual b; btuail, m liie ^OBsenaioo ol ihe KuobV 



35 



1 li T OF NEW YORK 547 

appt)iuted Chief-Justice, and Robert R. Livingston, 
Chancellor of the new State, over whicli, until the meet- 
ing of the first legislature, the Committee of Safety 
still continued to exercise their authority. Philip Liv- 
ingston, James Duane, Francis Lewis, William Duer, 
and Gouverueur Morris were at the same time appointed 
delegates to the Continental Congress. 

Other States sogn followed the example, and the new 
power that was springing up to a prominent position 
among the nations of the earth, grew stronger and 
more consolidated, day by day. A national Hag was 
adopted, and the thirteen stars and stripes, typical of the 
thirteen original pioneers of the future constellation, 
waved for the first time over the American fortresses, 
carrying with it the assumption of a claim to general 
recognition. Commissioners were also dispatched to 
the various European courts, to ask their sympathy and 
aid ; an appeal which was warmly responded to in 
France. Actuated partly, it may be, by enmity to an 
ancient foe, and partly by real sympathy for the strug- 
gling patriots, called forth by the eloquence of Franklin, 
Deane and Arthur Lee, the American Commissioners, 
the French government granted them money to fit out 
armed vessels for the relief of their countrymen, while 
many young noblemen, inspired with enthusiasm for the 
cause of liberty, proffered their services as volunteers in 
the projected expedition. Among these were Lafay- 
ette, Steuben, Pulaski, Kosciusko, De Kalb, and many 
more, whose names still live in the hearts of a grateful 
nation. These, by their knowledge of military science, 
afforded invaluable service to the undisciplined army, 



548 HISTOKT OF THE 

gathered from the workshop and the plough, totally igno- 
rant of the art of war, and only knowing how to die 
without shrinking in the defence of their hberty. 

Despite this welcome aid, and despite the cheering 
influence of the brilliant capture of Burgoyne at Sara- 
toga, the season that followed was a terrible era of 
suffering. The hardships of the winter passed at Valley 
Forge, the half-starved army, encamped on the frozen 
ground, tentless, fireless, destitute of money and cloth- 
ing, and marking their path on the snow by their bleeding 
feet, are too well known to require description at our 
hands. Darkness closed around the unhappy army, and 
nowhere were the clouds so dense as about the head of 
its heroic leader. This was the dark day of the life of 
Washington. The credit of Congress was exhausted 
and its treasury empty ; the Continental bills, once so 
easy a resource, had so far depreciated in value as to be 
almost worthless, while the British at New York added 
largely to this depreciation by putting in circulation 
immense quantities of spurious money of the same sort ; 
yet this debased currency was all that remained to the 
commander-in-chief wherewith to pay his troops and 
purchase food to support their existence. Nor was this 
all, his ambitious and intriguing subordinates were 
secretly leagued against him, plotting to throw him 
down, that they might rise in his stead. A fortuitous 
circumstance alone hindered their success ; the plot 
was skillfully laid, and the weight of a feather at this 
moment would have turned the balance, and precipi- 
tated Washington, now enshrined as an idol in the hearia 
of his adoring countrymen, into obscurity and oblivion. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 549 

How different might not have been the destiny of the 
future republic, had the intrigues of his enemies attained 
this cuhnination ! They barely missed the achievement 
of tbeir designs, and at this critical juncture it Avas 
New York that turned the scale, and preserved the 
credit and the future of George Washington. 

Flushed by the recent victory at Saratoga, Gates 
aspired to the chief command ; and in this he was 
seconded by Mifflin, Conway, and many of the mal- 
contents. In Congress, Richard Henry Lee and Samuel 
Adams led the factious party. Washington was loudly 
accused of incompetency ; the losses of New York, New- 
port and Philadelphia, together with his recent defeats 
at Brandywine and Germantown, were urged against 
him, and his opponents left no means untried to enlist 
the leading men of the country in a coalition which 
should deprive him of his position as commander of the 
army. Lafayette was appealed to, but he indignantly 
repelled the overtures. Patrick Henry and Henry Lau- 
rens were also addressed in anonymous letters ; they for- 
warded the missives to Washington himself by way of 
reply. Yet many did not remain tluis firm ; the con- 
fidence in the commander-in-chief became gradually 
weakened; the mine was prepared and on the point of 
explosion. In respect to the denmment of the dark 
intrigue, we quote the words of Dunlap, the contempo- 
rary historian of the times : " The Congress at this 
" time sat at Little York, the enemy being in Phila- 
" delphia. The confederacy of sovereign States had, 
" before 1777, in many instances been found wanting, 
"In July, 1778, the confederacy was signed; but on 



550 HISTORY OF THE 

" October 14th, 1777, Congress resolved that no State 
" should be represented by more than seven members or 
'•]ess than two. New York had but two members pre- 
" sent (Francis Lewis and William Duer), barel}' suf- 
" ficient to give her a vote ; one of those was lying sick ; 
" this was a situation which rendered her a nullity, and 
" a day was appointed by the cabal to nominate a com- 
" mittee to arrest Wasliington at the Valley Forge, 
" they having a majority, owing to the absence of New 
" York. 

" Francis Lewis, the onlj' member from New York 
" capable of taking his place, sent for the absentee. 
" Col. William Duer sent for his physician, Dr. Jones, 
" and demanded whether he could be removed to the 
" courthouse (or place of meeting). ' Yes, but at the 
" risk of your life.' ' Do you mean that I should expire 
"before reaching the place?' 'No; but I would not 
" answer for your life twenty-four hours after.' 'Very 
"well, sir; you have done your duty; prepare a litter 
" for me ; if you refuse, some one else shall, but I pre- 
" fer your care in the case.' The litter was prepared, 
" and the sick man ready to sacrifice his life for his 
" country, when the faction, baffled by the arrival of 
" Gouverneur Morris, and by the certainty of New York 
" being against them, gave up the attempt, and the 
" hazardous experiment on the part of Col. Duer was 
" rendered unnecessary." 

Washington subsequently received information through 
Lord Stirling of a correspondence between Gates and 
Conway, which left him no longer in doubt as to the 
authors of the plot, though Gates, when taxed with it. 



CITT OF NE"W YORK. 551 

at first denied it, and afterwards apologized in humble 
terms. The intrigue was finally foiled, yet it would 
have been carried by a coup de main, had it not been 
thwarted by the influence of the New York delegation. 

In the meantime, the English ministry, under Lord 
North, had made a last attempt to regain their authority 
over the colonies by renouncing the right of parlia- 
mentary taxation, and appointing commissioners to 
negotiate for the return of the colonies to their 
allegiance. These overtures were hailed with delight 
by the Tories and moderate men, who urged their 
acceptance ; but the Whigs refused to treat for anything 
short of an independence, and their determination was 
strengthened by the action of the French government, 
which, hitherto abstaining from a distinct alliance, now 
entered into a treaty of friendship and commerce, with 
pledges of a mutual defensive alliance in case that war 
should be declared against France by Great Britain. 
This treaty was followed by the anticipated result, and 
the British ambassador was recalled from Paris. Seeing 
the fatal consequences that must ensue, the opposition 
party in the Parliament, headed by Lord Rockingham, 
urged the ministry to abandon the struggle, and to 
acknowledge the independence of America ; but this 
proposal was indignantly scouted as a treason, and Pitt, 
the former idol of America, in whose honor the colonists 
had kindled bonfires, and erected statues, rose in his 
seat and spoke against it with so much vehemence that, 
exhausted by the effort, he sank fainting Lu the floor, 
and was carried out of Parliament for the last time, 
expending his dying breath in a vain effort to retain the 



o52 HISTORY OF THE 

supremacy of Great Britain over the colonies of America. 
His words prevailed, the measure v^as defeated, and the 
war was carried on with renewed vigor. Sir William 
Howe was recalled by his own request, and his place 
was filled by Sir Henry Clinton. 

Soon after this change, the battle of Monmouth was 
fought, resulting in the defeat of the British army, 
Clinton evacuated Philadelphia, and marched with his 
forces to New York, where all the army had been 
ordered to concentrate in order to thwart the plans of 
the French fleet under Count d'Estaing, which was 
approaching to blockade the British ships in the Dela- 
ware. A few days after he reached the city, D'Estaing 
arrived, and anchored his vessels off the harbor of New 
York, with the design of attacking the city, while Wash- 
ington proceeded to White Plains with his army, intend- 
ing to make a simultaneous attack by land upon the town. 
But the French ships were heavy, the pilots refused 
to take them over the bar, and the projected assault 
was finally abandoned. D'Estaing set sail for Newport, 
then held by a moderate force under General Pigot, 
while Admiral Howe, on his part, hastened to the relief 
of his officer. On the 15th of August, before the attack 
could take place, a violent storm shattered the vessels 
and drove them off the coast. D'Estaing abandoned the 
blockade and set sail for Boston for repairs, while the 
British fleet returned again to New York, together with 
Clinton, who had also marclied with a land force to the 
relief of Newport. 

On the 9th of August, 1778, the second great fire 
broke out in the city of New York. The conflagration 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 55S 

commenced in Dock, now Pearl, in the vicinity of Broad 
street, and raged with violence for several hours, con- 
suming three hundred houses on the eastern side of the 
city. The fire companies had been disbanded during 
the revolutionary struggle, and the military charged 
themselves with extinguishing the fire ; but, inexperi- 
enced in the work, they accomplished but little. Warned 
by this example, orders were subsequently issued by the 
commander-in-chief that the soldiers should help, but 
not order in future conflagrations. 

Scarcely had the flames been quenched when a new 
calamity occurred. The Morning Star powder-ship, 
which was anchored in the East River, was struck by 
lightning during a violent thunder-storm ; and so terrific 
was the explosion that the houses along the shore were 
unroofed by the shock, the windows shattered, and the 
furniture demolished. The crew had fortunately gone 
on shore, leaving the vessel in the care of a boy, who 
perished with his charge. 

At this time, General Robertson was the commandant 
of the city and the so-called royal governor of the pro- 
vince. This office was afterward filled by Colonel 
Birch, who resided in the Verplanck Mansion in Wall 
street, on the site of the future United States Bank. 
Baron Knyphausen still remained in the city, and acted 
as deputy commander-in-chief in the absence of Sir 
Henry Clinton. Andrew Eliot was lieutenant-governor 
and superintendent of the police, and David Mathews 
retained the office of mayor, to which he had been 
appointed on the resignation of Whitehead Hicks in the 
early part of the year 1776. 



554 HISTORY OF THE 

The summer and autumn of 1778 were marked by the 
barbarous massacres of Wyoming and Cherry Valley — 
acts of cruelty which stirred up the indignation of the 
patriots and urged them on to an almost superhuman 
struggle for vengeance. Retaliatory expeditions were 
dispatched against the settlements of the Iroquois, who 
had leagued themselves with the British, and many of 
their villages were destroyed. But tlie seat of the war 
was now about to be transferred to the South. During 
the summer, Clinton had been busily employed in forti- 
fying New York, then supposed to be destined for the 
next point of attack by the combined forces of the 
French and the Americans. Early in November, this 
design was abandoned, and Count d'Estaing set sail for 
the West Indies with a view to attacking the British 
colonies in that quarter. On the same day, the English 
Admiral Hotham set sail from Sandy Hook in pursuit, 
and in the ensuing month, he was followed by Admiral 
Byron, who had superseded Howe in the command of 
the British fleet. A few days after, Clinton dispatched 
General Campbell with a force of three thousand five 
hundred men, against Savannah, then defended by the 
American general, Robert Howe, The expedition proved 
successful, and the British troops were soon in j^ossession 
of the greater part of Georgia. At the North, the cam- 
paign was carried on with vigor. Ex-Governor Tryon 
marched with a strong force into Connecticut, plunder- 
ing and burning the settlements, and leaving ruin every- 
where in his path ; while Clinton himself headed 
foraging expeditions from the city, laying waste the 
surrounding country, and capturing Stony Point and its 



CITV OF NEW YORK. 555 

neighbor, Verplanck's Point, on the Hudson River. Yet 
victory was not wholly on the side of the British ; the 
brilliant recapture of Stony Point by General Wayne on 
the 15th of July, 1779, in.spired the Americans with 
fresh courage, and the naval victorj^ of John Paul Jones 
closed the campaign with signal success to the patriot 
forces. Late in December of the same year. Sir Henry 
Clinton embarked in person for Savannah with seven 
thousand men, leaving New York in charge of General 
Knj'phausen. 

The winter of 1779-80 was one of intense severity. 
Anticipating the scarcity of fuel, the commander-in-chief 
had ordered the wood on Staten and Long Islands to 
be cut by the proprietors and brought into market under 
penalty of forcible seizure, yet this provision failed to 
secure the needed supply, and many of the citizens were 
even compelled to burn their furniture for fuel as a last 
resort.* 



* We are indebted to the late Isaac Bell, sen., long a resident of tliis city, who 
had seen the Revolution ■\vitli his own eyes, been present when the iron balls 
were broken by the people from the railing about the Bowling Green to serve as 
leaden missives to the crew of the Asia on the occasion of the bombardment of 
the city, and when the statue of George III. was dragged from its pedestal 
and drawn through the streets of the city ; who had angled for blackfish in 
the waters about the Old Jersey, and skated with Prince William Henry, the 
future William IV,, then an awkward sailor boy on his first cruise, on the Lis- 
penard Meadows — the Collect being regarded as too dangerous a place for the 
scion of royalty — for very many interesting reminiscences of this winter, which, 
he said, exceeded any thing in severity that had ever been dreamed of by that 
classic authority, the oldest inhabitant. Wood was not to be had at any price, 
and many families would split up their chairs and tables to cook their break- 
fast, then go to bed for the rest of the day in order to keep warm. The father 
of Mr. Bell, a well-known ship-builder of the city, cut up a cable worth six hun- 
dred dollars for backlogs, and a spar of the same value for firewood. The 
rivers aljout the city wei'> transfonned into a solid bridge of ic(? for forty days 



556 HISTORY OF THE 

Firewood was scarce and hardly to be bought at any 
price ; jjrovisions were dear, and the general suffering 
was increased still more by the depreciation of the Con- 
tinental currency, which, taken at par, remained a drug 
in the hands of its possessors. Excessive suffering was 
experienced among the poor, as well as in the American 
army, still encamped in the Jerseys, and enduring a 
repetition of the horrors of Yalley Forge. The waters 
about New York were transformed into a solid block 
of ice, and men and horses passed over with impunity 
to the Long Island, Xew Jersey and Connecticut shores. 
Tempted by the opportunity afforded him by the icy 
bridge, Lord Stirling projected a secret expedition to 
Staten Island from the Jersey shores, hoping to surprise 
the detachments which were stationed there ; but the 
vigilant Tories of the neighborhood gave the alarm. 
A convoy of eighty sleighs, fiUed with provisions and 
stores, with the same number of cannon, was sent at 
once, under an escort of a hundred soldiers, from New 
York to the relief of the island ; and Stirling was forced 
on his arrival to retreat with a trifling loss. 

The campaign of 1780 opened disastrously for the 
patriots. After making himself master of South Caro- 
lina by a series of brilliant successes. Clinton returned 
in June to New York, leaving Cornwallis with a strong 
detachment to guard the conquered province. The 
defeat of Gates and Sumter soon followed, and the 
British commander remained in triumphant possession 

and Mr. Bell said that he saw with his own eyes the eighty cannon, above al- 
luded to, dragged across to Staten Island from the foot of Rector street to repe/ 
the expected attack of Lord Stirling 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 55"^ 

of the whole of the southern region, harassed, it is true, 
by an annoying guerrilla warfare on the part of Sumter 
and Marion. In the meantime, Knyphausen crossed 
with a detachment of five thousand men from Staten 
Island to New Jersey, and, taking possession of Eliza- 
bethtown and burning Connecticut Farms, endeavored 
to wrest the province from the American forces, but, 
finding them too strong for him, was compelled to 
retreat and to return to the city. 

The treason of Arnold was the prominent event of the 
year 1780. Brave almost to rashness, he had achieved 
brilliant successes in the previous campaigns, and won 
the implicit confidence of Washington. But despite his 
consummate military talents — despite the northern cam- 
paign and the battle of Behmus' Heights, in which his 
tact and ability had won the admiration of both friends 
and foes, he had for some time been growing unpopular 
both with Congress and with the people. With the for- 
mer, this was natural. Arnold was a man of fearless 
courage ; no officer in the ranks of the army had served 
more efficiently or won more brilliant victories than had 
he, and in acknowledged bravery and military ability he 
stood foremost among the generals of the day ; yet, 
despite this, Congress evinced a manifest disposition to 
keep him in the background by promoting inferior offi- 
cers above him, and constantly assigning to him subordi- 
nate commands. Much of this may be attributed to 
military jealousy ; much, too, it may be, to the fact that 
he was known as a warm friend of Washington, who, at 
this time, was far from popular in the councils of the 
nation. Chafed by these tokens of evident injustice, and 



558 HISTORY OF THE 

goaded on by a natuiallj' jealous and imperious disposi 
tino, Arnold complained bitterly of the slights to which he 
was subjected ; while Washington used every eiFort to 
soothe his wounded spirit, and on the evacuation of 
Philadelphia by the British forces in 1778, procured him 
the command of the city. Soon after his entrance into 
his new office, he married Margaret Shippen, the daugh- 
ter of a well-known Tory citizen of Philadelphia, who 
had been the friend and companion of the young British 
officers quartered in the city during the previous winter, 
among whom was Major Andr€, the aid-de-camp and 
confidential friend of Sir Henry Clinton. This union 
tempted him to the indulgence of his naturally luxu- 
rious tastes; the finest house in the town was chosen by 
him as his residence, and 6tted up in a costly style, and 
his whole 7n^nage was conducted in a manner better 
befitting the purse of a prince than that of a simple 
officer of an impoverished army. This extravagance 
soon excited the murmurs of the citizens, who openly 
accused him of peculation. To add to this, he soon 
became involved in disputes with the mayor and com- 
mon council in respect to the bounds of his authority as 
the military commandant of the city ; and, by their direc- 
tion, he was finally prosecuted by the attorney-general 
of the State on various charges of criminality and 
willful abuse of power, tried by a court-martial, found 
guilty in part, and sentenced to be reprimanded by the 
commander-in-chief. This painful task was performed 
by Washington with all possible delicacy ; despite the 
faults of Arnold, he loved him as a brother, and had con- 
stantly endeavored to soothe his fiery temper and tc 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



559 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 561 

persuade him to endure his grievances with manly forti- 
tude Stung to the quick by the public rebuke, the 
proud and impatient general speedily resolved on a 
revenge which, if not more justifiable, might have been 
more excusable, had it not been mingled with mer- 
cenary conditions. But, drawn on by his late alliance 
to aspire to a luxurious household with little means of 
support beyond those he derived from the impoverished 
treasury of his country, he now resolved by selling him- 
self to effect the twofold purpose of accomplishing his 
revenge and of procuring the means for a continuance of 
his pleasures. 

For this purpose, he first offered himself to the 
French ambassador, who rejected his overtures with 
scorn. Foiled in this quarter, he next opened a nego- 
tiation with Clinton through the medium of Major 
Andr^, who received him with open arms. The better 
to effect his treasonable designs, and to enhance their 
value to the enemies of his country, he sought and 
obtained the command of West Point, at this time the 
key of the American possessions, which he proposed to 
deliver into the hands of Clinton. The price of this 
trejtchery was fixed at ten thousand pounds sterling, 
with the post of brigadier-general in the British army. 

At this time, Sir Henry Clinton had his head-quarters 
in the Kennedy House, No. 1 Broadway, later the Wash- 
ington Hotel. Here he laid his plans for the seizi;re of 
West Point, and intrusted the brave young Andr6 with 
the papers and commission necessary to effect the pur- 
pose, which proved his death-warrant, paving the way 
to an ignominious doom. The sequel has been too 
36 



562 HISTORY OF THE 

often and too graphically described in general histories 
to require a detailed notice at our hands. The gallant 
young officer was arrested on his return from his 
perilous errand, and, despite the earnest efforts of Clin- 
ton, despite the anguish of Washington himself, con- 
demned to execute a sentence against which his heart 
revolted, was sacrificed to that inexorable military code 
which prescribes an ignoble death on the gallows as the 
inevitable doom of a spy. But far different was his 
death from that of young Hale ; his last moments were 
soothed by every attention that humanity could dictate, 
and, a victim to the stern necessities of war, he met his 
fate amid the tears of his executioners. Arnold, mean- 
while, received the price of blood, and took up his abode 
in New York, branded with the scorn even of those for 
whom he had sacrificed his honor. Here he lived for 
some time in partial concealment, sometimes in the 
Verplanck House in Wall street, and sometimes at No. 9 
Broadway, near the residence of Clinton. The most 
earnest efforts were made by his incensed countrymen to 
effect his capture. The gallant Champe, risking his life 
and reputation, feigned to desert to the British army, 
and, escaping with difficulty the pursuit of his comrades, 
swam the river to New York, where he was warmly 
received by Arnold, his perilous escape insuring full 
faith in the fidelity of his professions. The supposed 
deserter at once gained free access to the house in 
Broadway, and matured his plans for the projected 
capture. An alley adjoined the garden of the house, 
through which the conspirators proposed to pass, and, 
entering the garden by removing some palings, pre- 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 563 

viously loosened by Champe, to proceed to the house 
under the guidance of then- comrade, seize their victim, 
gag him, and carry him off by tlie same route to the 
boat which would await them by the shore. Tlie plan 
was well laid ; a fortuitous circumstance alone prevented 
its execution. On the day preceding the one fixed for 
the capture, Champe was ordered to embark for Chesa- 
peake, while Arnold removed from his head-quarters to 
another house nearer the place of embarkation. The 
Americans, punctual at the rendezvous, waited in vain 
for several hours on the opposite shore ; then returned 
to the camp, disappointed in one of their dearest 
wishes. Champe seized the earliest opportunity to 
desert from the southern army and return to his 
comrades to clear up the stain that had rested on 
his honor. Arnold remained in the service of the 
British until the close of the war, when he repaired to 
England, where he died in 1801, leaving a name black- 
ened with inlamy. 

The winter of 1780-81 differed little from the pre- 
ceding. Disaffection prevailed among the army, who 
grumbled at their scanty fare and arrears of pay. So 
violent did this feeling become that, on the first ol' 
January, the Pennsylvania troops abandoned the main 
army in a body, and set out for Philadelphia to demand 
of Congress a redress of their grievances. On hearing 
of this, Sir Henry Clinton at once dispatched emissaries 
to induce them to desert to the British service, but the 
indignant patriots seized the agents, bound them, and 
delivered them up to Congress to be treated as spies. 
They were met at Princeton by a deputation from 



564 HISTORTOFTHE 

Congress, which promised them relief. Step." T73re 
immediately taken to secure the needed provisions ; 
taxes and requisitions were levied upon the surrounding 
country, and money, ammunition and clothhig were 
furnished in tolerable supplies. Much of this was due 
to the influence of Robert Morris, a wealthy merchant 
of Philadelphia and able financier, at that time superin- 
tendent of the treasury, who exhausted every resource 
that his means and credit could offer, and resorted to 
every expedient that his ingenuity could invent, to fur- 
nish the necessary provisions and prevent the army from 
disbanding in hopeless despair. 

The southern campaign of this year opened favorably 
for the Americans. General Greene, who had super- 
seded Gates in the command of the southern army, 
harassed the British forces severely, and forced them at 
length to retreat to Charleston, leaving him in possession 
of the rest of the Carolinas. Meanwhile, Lafayette, in 
Virginia, watched the movements of Cornwallis, and 
thwarted his plans continually. 

In June, the French army imder Count Rochambeau 
marched from Newport to rejoin Washington in the 
Highlands, and, at the same time, intelligence was 
received that Count de Grasse was on his way from 
France with a powerful fleet to the American coasts. 
Anticipatmg that New York would be the next point of 
attack, Clinton ordered Cornwallis to abandon the 
interior of Virginia and march to the sea-coast, to be in 
readiness to reinforce the garrison of the city. The 
latter obeyed, and proceeding to Yorktown on the south 
side of York River, intrenched himself there ; Glou 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 565 

jester's Point, on the opposite side of the river, being 
occupied by Col. Tarleton. 

Toward the last of August, De Grasse appeared off 
the coast, and, instead of proceeding to New York as 
had been expected, made his way to the Chesapeake, 
where, entering the bay, he engaged the British fleet 
under Graves which arrived a few days after, and covered 
the landing of the French squadron from Newport which 
had been dispatched with stores for the siege of Corn- 
wallis, now blockaded at Yorktown by several frigates 
under the command of Lafayette. Worsted in the 
action, Graves returned to New York to refit, leaving 
De Grasse in possession of the bay. In the meantime, 
Washington and Rochambeau, who had succeeded in 
firmly persuading Clinton of their designs on New York, 
suddenly took up their march for Yorktown, nor was the 
astonished general aware of the feint until they were 
safely encamped before the army of Coruwallis. 

Hoping to divert the attention of Washington, Clinton 
dispatched Arnold on a marauding expedition against 
Connecticut, which resulted in the burning of New Lon- 
don, together with the destruction of Fort Griswold and 
the massacre of its brave commander, Captain Ledyard, 
with the greater part of the garrison. But this brutal out- 
rage did not serve to check the advances of the combined 
armies, who had now completely invested Cornwallis. 
On the evening of the 9th of October, a heavy fire was 
opened by the besiegers on the town, which was con- 
tinued at intervals for several days. On the 14th, a 
simultaneous attack was made by a French and Ameri- 
can detachment, the latter under the command of Alex- 



566 HISTORY OF THE 

ander Hamilton, upon two redoubts, in advance and or. 
the left of the British lines, which were successfully 
carried. The works were immediately included within 
the American lines, and a cannonading opened thence 
upon Cornwalhs. Seeing himself thus closely besieged, 
his guns dismounted, his men constantly falling around 
him, and all hope of escape definitively cut off, after a 
last attempt at a desperate sally, the general at length 
consented to surrender, and, on the 17th of October, 
capitulated to the patriot forces, and surrendered him- 
self with seven thousand troops as prisoners of war. 
Five days afterwards. Sir Henry Clinton appeared in 
the mouth of the Chesapeake with large reinforcements, 
but on hearing of the surrender, returned with preci- 
pitation to New York. 

This signal victory virtually closed the war. Public 
rejoicings were pi'oclaimed throughout the country, and 
the loth of December was set apart as a day of general 
thanksgiving. The victorious army separated ; De Grasse 
set sail for the West Indies, Rochambeau bivouacked in 
Virginia for the winter campaign, and Washington 
returned with the main body of the army to his fortified 
post in the Highlands, first sending St. Clair with a strong 
detachment to the southern army to reinforce General 
Greene. 

Upon the reception of the news of this defeat in Eng- 
land, Clinton was superseded in his conniiand by Sir 
Guy Carleton, who arrived at New York soon after, 
and took up his residence in the Kennedy, now the Gov- 
ernment House. But it was evident to aU that the 
appointment was merely nominal, and that the time had 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 567 

come foi' the cessation of hostilities. The peace party 
in Parhament renewed their efforts to put an end to tlic 
war, and, strengthened by the manifest public approval, 
their influence grew so formidable that, on the 2Sth of 
March, 1782, Lord North resigned his place at the head 
of the Cabinet. His office was immediately filled by 
Lord Rockingham, the leader of the opposition. Under 
his leadership, the future could not be doubtful, and Sir 
Guy Carleton was charged with instructions to negotiate 
for an early treaty of peace. The summer passed away 
in correspondence and negotiations ; and it Avas not until 
the 30th of November of the same year that preliminary 
articles of peace were signed at Paris by Mr. Oswald, 
on the part of Great Britain, and John Adams, Benjamin 
Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens in behalf 
of the United States. Thomas Jefferson, who should 
have been among the number, was absent by reason 
of the illness of his wife. Similar articles were soon 
after concluded between France and England. For 
some time, the ambassadors attempted through intrigue 
to prevail on the American Commissioners to accept a 
truce for twenty years instead of an open acknowledg- 
ment of independence ; and it is even asserted that 
Franklin himself had nearly assented to this arrangement, 
but, just at this juncture, John Jay arrived from Spain, 
and fhitly refused to accept such a compromise. Oswald 
at length reluctantly consented to the proposed conditions, 
and, on the 3d of September, 1783, signed a definitive 
treaty on the part of Great Britain, recognizing the 
mdependence of the LTnited States, and fixing the great 
lakes on the North and the Mississippi on the West as 



568 CITY OF NEW YORK. 

the boundaries of the new nation. The Floridas were 
ceded to Spain, their former owner, and the contested 
point of an unhmited right of fishing on the banks of 
Newfoundland was conceded to the United States by the 
British government. 

A cessation of hostilities had been proclaimed in the 
American camp on the preceding 19th of April, the eighth 
anniversary of the battle of Lexington. On the 3d of 
November, 1783, the Continental army was disbanded by 
order of Congress, and, on the 25th of the same month. 
General Washington entered the city of New York at 
noon, by the Bowery, then the only road, while, at the 
same time, the British troops evacuated the city, and, 
entering the ships that lay anchored in the harbor, 
unfurled their sails and slowly sailed down the bay. The 
American militia, under the command of General Knox, 
immediately took command of the fort, the stars and 
stripes for the first time were unfurled from its walls, 
a triumphant salute was fired by the corps of artillery, 
and, after a seven years' foreign occupation. New York 
was again in possession of her citizens. 

The evacuation of New York was preceded by the 
flight of a large number of loyalists to Nova Scotia, 
the most convenient available spot on this side the 
ocean Avhere they could live in j^eace under the Brit- 
ish flag, without being branded by the name of Tories. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



Waahmgtoa in New York — Partiag with his Offloera at Frannces' Tavern — Progres! 
of the City— The Doctors' Mob. 



Not openly and fairly was this evacuation made ; the 
British, departing by the provisions of an honorable 
treaty, employed the last moments of their presence in 
the city in the commission of a base and unmanly out- 
rage. Unreeving the halliards of the flagstaff at Fort 
George, they knocked off the cleats and greased the 
pole to prevent the hoisting of the American colors; 
then evacuated the fort, sure that the stars and stripes 
would not be hoisted until they were far out of sight of 
their folds. 

The discovery of this act excited general indignation, 
yet it did not delay the ceremony as its perpetrators had 
wished. A sailor-boy attempted at once to climb the 
bare pole, but it was too slippery, and he failed in the 
attempt. Upon this, the bystanders ran precipitately 
to Goelet's hardware store in Hanover Square, and, pro- 
curing hammers, nails, and other necessary tools, set to 



•570 11 I S T R Y F T U E 

work, some to saw, some to split, and others to bore new 
cleats for the flagstaflf. Filling his pockets with these, 
the sailor-boy tied the halliards around his waist, and, 
nailing the cleats above him on the right and left, 
ascended, reeved the halliards, and hoisted the flag to its 
place ; and as the stars and stripes reached the top of 
the mast, a salute of thirteen guns rung its echoes in 
the ears of the discomfited troops, not yet out of hear- 
ing of the sound of triumph. 

Another incident, related by an eye-witness of the scene, 
the late Dr. Anderson, may serve to illustrate the reluc- 
tance Avith which the British quitted their hold of the 
city which they had so long claimed as theii* own. By 
the conditions agreed ripou, the city was to be surren- 
dered at noon, but an impatient shopkeeper in Mun-ay 
near Greenwich streets anticij^ated the arrangement, 
and hoisted the American flag during the course of the 
morning. Provost-marshal Cunningham hastened to 
the spot and confronted the proprietor. " Pull down 
" that flag ;" exclaimed he with an oath ; " the city 
"belongs to the British till noon." The man objected, 
hesitated, and was on the point of yielding, when the 
good woman of the house came to the rescue. "The 
"flag shall not come down," said she. Cunningham 
stormed and swore, and finally attempted to tear down 
the colors with his own hands, but the woman assailed 
him so vigorously with her broomstick, striking a cloud 
of powder from his wig at each blow, that he was forced 
at last to abandon the field and leave the stars and 
stripes iu quiet possession. 

Greueral Knox was at once installed as commander-in- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



571 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 573 

chief of the military forces in the city. General 
Washington lingered a few days, fixing his head-quarters 
at Fraunces' or Black Sam's Tavern, as it was familiarly 
called in allusion to the swarthy complexion of its pro- 
prietor, on the corner of Pearl, then Queen, and Broad 
streets, where at noon, on the 4th of December, his officers 
assembled to bid him farewell. The scene was an affect- 
ing one. The dangers and privations of years had knit 
officers and general together as comrades, and now that 
the object of all was attained, in the happiness of peace 
was felt the pang of separation. Washington himself 
could scarce restrain his feelings ; his friends did not 
attempt to do so. Filling a glass for a farewell toast, he 
turned to the company and said : " With a heart full of 
" love and gratitude, I now take leave of you, and most 
" devoutly wish that your latter days may be as pros- 
" perous and happy as your former ones have been 
" glorious and honorable." He raised the glass to his 
lips, then continued : " I cannot come to each of you to 
" take my leave ; but shall be obliged if each one will 
" come and take me by the hand.'" They obeyed in 
silence — none could speak ; Knox first, then the others 
embraced him in turn ; then turning silently from the 
weeping group, he passed from the room, and walked 
to Whitehall, followed by his comrades, where a barge 
was in waiting to convey him to Paulus Hook. Havhig 
entered the boat, he bade them adieu with a silent ges- 
ture, and the procession returned to their place of 
rendezvous, mute and dejected at the loss of their leader. 
Washington proceeded to Annapolis, where Congress 
was then in session, and, resigning his conimission as 



■574 HISTORY OF THE 

commander-ill-chief, hastened to Mount Vernon tc 
resume the duties of a private citizen. 

The city now began to fall back into a state of order, 
and to resume the appearance of tranquillity. It was 
time, indeed ; its commerce was ruined and its growth 
retarded ; it had paid a heavy tribute to the cause of 
liberty. No change was made in the character of the 
city government. The Dongan and Montgomerie charters 
were resumed as authority, the controlling power that 
had formerly been exercised by Great Britain being 
vested in the State. The city was still divided into seven 
wards, an alderman and an assistant from each of which 
were chosen annually by the people, while the appoint- 
ment of the mayor remained wi,th the State government. 
This office was solicited by the mass of the people for 
James Duane, a native-born citizen, who had wrecked his 
fortune in the Revolutionary struggle, and had now 
returned to his farm, near Gramercy Park, to find his 
house burned and his property desti-oyed. The desired 
appointment was granted by Clinton, and, on the 5th of 
February, 1784, he was installed as the first mayor of 
the city under the new regime ; an office which he con 
tinned to hold until 1789, when he resigned it for that oi 
District Judge of the District of New York. 

On the 11th of September, General Lafayette passed 
through the city on his return to France, and was 
received with all the enthusiasm which a grateful people 
could offer. Upon his arrival, he was waited upon by 
the corporation, who tendered him a complimen- 
tary address, with the freedom of the city. He 
remained but a few days. On his departure, he was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 575 

escorted to the wharf by a large concourse of citizens, 
who witnessed his departure with sincere regret. The 
same welcome was extended soon after by the city 
authorities to John Jay, on his ari'ival from his success- 
ful European mission, and also to Baron Steuben, who 
A'isited the city during the same autumn. On the 2d 
of December, Washington arrived in the cit}', where he 
was received with a burst of enthusiasm. The corpo- 
ration paid him the highest honors in their power, while 
the citizens vied with each other in proving by their 
thanks that the days of the Revolution were not yet 
forgotten. 

The next few years wore away with little event. 
Commerce, so long depressed, slowly revived, and public 
impi'ovements were again talked of ; but, though much 
was projected, little was done till the beginning of the 
next century. The city was forced, as it wore, to begin 
life anew ; her trade was ruined, her treasury empty, 
her people even yet divided among themselves. Feuds 
were existing everywhere, the effect of the recent war. 
The patriots returned from their long expatriation with 
their hearts full of bitterness against those — and they 
were many — who had clung to the royalist side and 
remained in possession of their homes during the days 
of trial ; Avhile the latter indulged in bitter invectives 
against the newly-establislied government, which, in manv 
instances, had confiscated their estates, and branded 
them by its success as traitors to their country. New 
York was suffering from all the evils which a seven 
years' foreign occupation could inflict upon a city. Para- 
lyzed by the long-contiiuied dominion of a foreign armv. 



576 HISTORY OF THE 

with a disorganized governmeut, an interrupted com- 
merce, and a scattered population, years were needed to 
recuperate its energies and fully to complete the work of 
its resuscitation. 

The spirit of public improvement soon revived, a;id 
the city began to grow apace. The population at this 
time numbered about twenty-three thousand inhabitants. 
The first step towards progress was made in the 
improvement of the waste ground about the Collect, 
through which Reade and Duane streets were opened in 
1794. The upper bari-acks along the line of Chambers 
street, now useless for their original purpose, were 
leased as dwellings for the benefit of the corporation. 

These barracks, which had been built during the old 
French war, were rude log huts, a single story in height, 
extending from Broadway to Chatham street, and 
inclosed by a high wall, with a gate at each end. From 
the eastern, familiarly known as " Tryon's Gate," was 
derived the name of the present Tryon Row. 

The process of filling in and grading the grounds 
about the Collect went on slowly ; ere long, it 
infringed upon the lake itself. A survey of the pond 
and the land about it was made in 1790, and, during the 
following year, the corporation purchased the claim 
of the heirs of Anthony Rutgers, for the sum of 
one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. This done, the 
pond was staked off, and the work of filling up the 
grounds in its vicinity from the neighboring hills went 
on during several years. In 1796, a canal through Lis- 
penard's Meadows, from the Collect to the North River, 
was proposed and sometime after constructed along the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



577 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 579 

line of Canal street. This canal was forty feet wide with 
a street on each side of the width of thirty feet. A 
stone bridge of a single arch, ten feet seven inches above 
the surface of the meadow, crossed it at the junction of 
Broadway and Canal street. 

The pond, meanwhile, remained the same, deep, clear 
and sparkling — a miniature sea in the heart of the city. 
Its waters still furnished food for the angler, and rumors 
were rife of strange sea monsters which had been seen 
therein, one of which had carried off a Hessian trooper 
in the days of the Revolution. It was a man-trap, too, 
for the unwary traveller, and, fi-om time to time, a 
citizen, who had mistaken his way in the darkness or 
had drank too deeply, fell from its banks and was 
drowned where now is solid ground. The possibility of 
such a transformation had not yet occurred to the busy 
speculators ; but schemes were projected to convert the 
beautiful lake into a means of ornament and profit. 
One company proposed to buy up the lands about it, 
and, preserving the lake in its primitive condition, to lay 
out a portion of the grounds as a public park, and 
realize their exppcted profit from the enhanced value of 
the remainder. But this project was scouted as vision- 
ary by the cautious capitalists, who could not credit that 
the city would ever extend so far ; the proprietors of the 
land, joining in the belief, wei-e unwilling to risk their 
property in so wild a scheme ; and the plan which would 
have preserved an inland sea in the heart of the city — a 
natural feature shared by no other — was finally aban- 
doned by its enterprising projectors. 

Another company proposed to cut a ship canal through 



580 HISTORY OF THE 

the island, connecting the pond with the rivers on either 
side, and thus to convert it into a magnificent inland 
liarbor ; but this scheme failed for the same reasons as 
the other — the ca^jitalists lacked faith in such extrava- 
gant hopes of the future city. As the city increased and 
the once-neglected lands grew valuable as gold-mines, 
the Collect was gradually filled in from the surrounding 
liills, till, in process of time, the lake over whose waters 
the Indians had so often guided their canoes, was trans- 
formed into firm earth, the site of the gloomy " Tombs " 
with its neighborhood of crime and misery. 

From the earliest times, the Dutch " Vlackte " or 
Flat — the English Commons — had been recognized as 
the property of the city, to be used for public purposes. 
These purposes had been somewhat various, it is true ; 
a pasture under the peaceful sway of the Dutch burghers, 
it had become, in the stormy times which preceded the 
Revolution, the gathering-place of the patriots — the 
cradle of Liberty. What Faneuil Hall was to Boston, 
was the Commons to New York. There the enthusiastic 
Sons of Liberty, under the chieftainship of Scott, Sears, 
Lamb and McDougall, assembled to denounce the 
obnoxious Stamp Act ; there they fought bravely in 
defence of their Liberty-Pole, the exponent of a right 
and a principle ; there they ended the battle of Golden 
Hill — the first battle of the Revolution — a contest under- 
taken, not from the impulse of sudden anger, but in 
defence of the liberties of the people ; there, too, were 
the Bridewell, the New Jail and the old Provost, the 
gloomy prisons of the victims of Howe and Clinton. 

At this time, as heretofore, the Commons lay open 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 581 

uninclosed by any kind of fence or wall. On the north 
side, was the Alms House and House of Correction. 
The Bridewell stood at the west end of the present City 
Hall, and the New Jail, now the Hall of Records, occu- 
pied its present position. Between the Alms House and 
the Bridewell was the public gallows, which, transferred 
in 1756 from its place near the lower end of the Park to 
the foot of Catiemut's Hill, in the vicinity of the Five 
Points, had been removed again to the Commons in 

1784. In 1796, a new Alms House was built on 
Chambers street in the rear of the old one, now so 
dilapidated as to be unfit for further use, into which the 
inmates were removed in the course of the following 
year. 

The Bridewell had been erected in 1 775 on the site of 
the first Liberty-Pole, and within the bounds of the 
piece of land purchased for the second in 1770. This 
land was still the property of the Sons of Liberty, and in 

1785, Isaac Sears, in whose name it had been purchased, 
claimed it on their behalf, and offered to release all 
right and title to it for eighty pounds sterling, with law- 
ful interest ; the amount of the original purchase money. 
The claim was allowed b}' the corporation, and the sum 
ordered forthwith to be paid ; but the said payment was 
never made, and the grounds to the northwest of the 
City Hall still belong to the heirs of the New York 
Liberty Boys. 

In 1790, the first sidewalks in the city were laid on 
the west side of Broadway from Vesey to Murray street, 
and opposite for the same distance along the Bridewell 
fence. These were narrow pavements of brick and 



582 HISTORY OF THE 

Stone, scarcely wide enough to permit two persons to 
walk abreast. Above Murray street, Broadway was a 
succession of hills, having its highest elevation in the 
vicinity of Anthony street, where the road rose precipi- 
tously over a steep hill, then descended as abruptly on 
the other side to the valley at Canal street. In 1797, 
the grade of Broadway from Duane to Canal streets was 
established by the corporation, though some time 
elapsed before the proposed improvement Avas reduced 
to fact. The highest point of the projected grade was at 
the intersection of Broadway and Leonard street, whence 
it was to descend gradually to the bridge across the 
meadow at Canal street, where the land required to be 
raised about seven inches. But, in return, at Leonard 
street, it was necessary to cut through the hill to the 
depth of fifteen and a half feet, and at Anthony street to 
the depth of twenty-two feet nine inches. At Pearl 
street, the ground was four feet nine inches above the 
proposed grade. 

The need of street numbers had been for some time 
rendered apparent by the increasing growth of the city, 
and in 1793, the corporation appointed a committee to 
prepare and report a feasible system. This was done, 
and the proposed method, beginning at the next house 
in every street terminating at either of the rivers, at the 
intersection of the main street next the river, and num- 
bering all houses below these intersecting streets, begin- 
ning with No. 1, looking upward in all the main streets 
and downward in all the slips, and so on to the end of 
the street or slip, was adopted by the corporation. 

From the evacuation of New York by the British 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 583 

troops in 1783 to the organization of tlie Federal Gov- 
ernment in 1789, the most exciting event that happened 
in the city was probably the riot, known since familiarly 
as the Doctors' Mob. During the winters of 1787 and 
1788, a number of dead bodies had been dug up by 
stealth by medical students and others, not onl}- from 
the Potter's Field and the Negroes' Burial-Grotuid — 
then reclconed lawful prey — but from the private ceme- 
teries of the city ; and the fact becoming known, excited 
a general ferment among the people, and awakened a 
violent prejudice against the medical profession. As is 
usual in such cases, the facts were greatly exaggerated 
by public rumor, the most absui'd reports were circu- 
lated through the city, and the New York Hospital — at 
that time the only one — was regarded by the people with 
superstitious horror. On the 13th of April, while the 
public mind was in this excited state, some students 
thoughtlessly exposed the limb of a body from the win- 
dow of the dissecting-room in sight of a grouj) of boys 
who were at play in the rear of the Hospital. The news 
spread like lightning, and was instantly caught up by the 
unemployed crowds who were loitering in the streets to 
enjoy the leisure of the day. An immense multitude 
speedily assembled, and, besieging the Hospital, burst 
open the doors, and destroyed a collection of anatomical 
preparations, the most of which had been imported from 
abroad. Some fresh subjects were discovered, which 
were borne away and interred in triumph. The terrified 
physicians attempted to secrete themselves, but were 
dragged from their hiding-places, and would assuredly 
have been sacrificed to the fury of the crowd, had not 



584 HISTORY OF THE 

the magistrates interfered and lodged them in the jai! 
for safety. Satisfied with their work of vengeance, the 
crowd dispersed, and the physicians flattered themselves 
that the affair was over. 

They were mistaken ; it was but the beginning of the 
play. The next morning, the crowd assembled with 
fresh reinforcements, and avowed their purpose of 
searching the houses of the suspected physicians. Clin- 
ton, Hamilton, Jay and others remonstrated, assuring 
them that justice would be rendered them by the law ; 
and, after searching Columbia College and several of the 
suspected houses, they were at length persuaded to 
retire. 

In the afternoon, matters grew more serious. A 
party of the more violent gathered about the jail, and 
demanded possession of the students who were lodged 
there. This demand was of course refused ; to have 
complied would have been to deliver over the victims to 
certain destruction. Alarmed at the hostile attitude of 
the gathering, the mayor promptly called out the militia, 
and, about three o'clock, dispatched a small party to the 
defence of the refugees, which was suffered by the mob 
to pass without much molestation. A reinforcement of 
twelve men, dispatched to their aid an hour after, were 
arrested and disarmed before they reached the jail. 
Elated with this success, the rioters next attacked the 
building, but were beaten back by the handful of militia 
which had first been sent there, and which maintained 
its ground against desperate odds. 

The city became the scene of intense excitement. The 
mob, unable to force the jail, tore down the fences and 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 585 

broke the windows, vowing destruction to every doctor 
in the city. The crowd about the building increased 
every moment, and the position of affiiirs grew so alarm- 
ing that, about dusk, the mayor marched with a large 
party of armed citizens to the relief of the besieged. 
The friends of law and order hastened to the spot, and 
vainly exerted their eloquence to allay the tempest and 
prevent the shedding of blood. They were assailed in 
reply by a volley of stones and brickbats, one of which 
struck John Jay in the forehead while he was earnestly 
entreating the multitude to disperse, and felled him to 
the earth, wounding him severely. Finding all other 
arguments in vain, the mayor at length determined to 
fire upon the rioters. Baron Steuben interposed and 
implored him to desist, but, before he could finish the 
entreaty, a stone whizzed through the air and laid him 
prostrate. " Fire, mayor, fire !" cried he, before he had 
touched the ground. The mayor hesitated now no lon- 
ger ; the order was given, the militia obeyed, and a 
number of the rioters fell a*: the first volley, while the 
remainder dispersed without waiting for the second. 
Five persons were killed in the fray, and seven or eight 
severely wounded. 

A ludicrous incident, illustrative of the height of the 
popular fury, occurred during the riot, which was 
nearly attended by disastrous consequences. While the 
excitement was at its height, a party of the rioters 
chanced to pass the house of Sir John Temple, then 
resident British Consul at New York, and mistaking the 
name of "Sir John" for " surgeon," attacked it furiously, 
and were with difficulty restrained from levelling it to 



586 HISTORY OF THE 

the grouiul. For some days, the militia kept guard 
about the jail, but no other attempt was made at 
violence. The offending students were sent into the 
country for a time, and the public^ excitement by degrees 
became alla3'ed. But the venerable hospital was hence- 
forth invested by the populace with a sort of hoiTor, 
and became the scene of many a fearful resurrectionist 
legend. 

By the Articles of Confederation, under which the 
States had continued to act since the close of the war, 
each State was constituted an independent sovereignty, 
governed exclusively by its own legislature, and only 
subject as a political body to the general Congress, 
which, even then, had no power to force compliance 
with its dictates, or to prevent one State from making 
war upon another. Without credit, without revenue, 
empowered only to advise, and uninvested with any 
executive authority, this Congress was, indeed, but a 
mei'e farce, and the Articles "a rope of sand," as they 
were termed at the time. The need of a closer union 
of the States and of an efficient general government, 
soon became apparent. The country was in an impover- 
ished condition ; besides a foreign debt of eight millions, 
a domestic debt of nearly thirty millions had been 
incurred by the war ; yet Congress had no power to 
meet these obligations, but only to urge the States to 
raise money for the purpose. The officers and soldiers 
of the Revolutionary army, who had received but four 
months' pay, were clamoring for their arrears, but no 
money could be found to discharge the debt. Some of 
the States endeavored to meet these demands by levy- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 587 

ing heavy taxes upon the citizens ; but this proceeding 
excited general discontent, and in Massachusetts, an 
insurrection ensued, which was with difficulty suppressed 
by force. The State treasuries were exhausted, com- 
merce was prostrated, the people, impoverished by the 
late war, were unable to support additional burdens, 
and, in the absence of a responsible general government, 
all hope of relief from credit was necessarily futile. In 
this exigency, a convention, growing out of a propo- 
sition of James Madison, of Virginia, was held at Anna- 
pohs in September, 1786, for the purpose of amending 
the Articles of Confederation. Their deliberations 
resulted only in paving the way for another convention, 
composed of delegates from all the States, which was 
held at Philadelphia in the following May, with George 
Washington as president. After four months' delibera- 
tions, on the 17th of September, 1787, the present Con- 
stitution of the United States was accepted by the 
Convention, and submitted to the different States for 
approval. 

Notwithstanding the obvious need of a consolidated 
government, the proposed Constitution was opposed by 
a large portion of the inhabitants, who averred that 
it placed too much power in the hands of the Executive ; 
and the States came slowly into the Union. Since the 
restoration of peace, two political parties had sprung 
into existence in New York. One of the primary causes 
(if this division was the bill disfranchising all who had 
adhered to the British government during the war, 
which had passed the Assembly of 1784, chiefly through 
(he ePTorts of the Sons of Lilterty who composed the 



588 HISTORY OF THE 

New Yoi'k representation.* This act bore heavil}' upon 
the loyalists, many of whom were also attainted for 
treason, and their estates confiscated to the government ; 
and urgent efforts were made by them to procure its 
repeal, which were stoutly opposed by the Sons of 
Liberty, but were seconded by Hamilton and Schuyler. 
Through the influence of these joowerful friends, the act 
was finall}^ repealed on the 3d of February, 1787, and 
the loyalists reinstated in their privileges of citizenship. 
This act, denounced by the Liberty Boys as emanating 
from British influence, won the loyalists over to the side 
of Hamilton, and secured concurrence in his efforts 
for the adoption of the new Constitution. The 
opposite party, meanwhile, known familiarly as the 
" French party," for their sympathy with the struggle 
for independence now going on in France and their 
hatred of the opposing British influences, denounced the 
new Constitution in no measured terms, and exerted 
themselves to the utmost to prevent its acceptance by 
the people. 

This new issue drew a marked line between the 
parties. The federalists, comprising the refranchised 
royalists, indorsed the new Constitution ; the anti- 
Federalists opposed it with all its adjuncts. The Consti- 
tution had already been accepted by the nine States 
necessary for its adoption, beginning with Delaware and 
ending with Massachusetts ; yet New York still held 

• John Lamli, Marinus Willctt, Isaac Sears, Henry Rutgers, William Malcolm, 
Robert Harpur, John Stagg, Peter P. Van Zandt and Hugh Hughes, most of whom 
were well known as active Sons of Liberty, were the New York representatives to 
Ihis first Assembly after the close of the war. 



CITY OF NEW YORK 589 

aloof. On the iTtli of June, 17SS, the Convention of 
the State of 'New York assembled at Poughkeepsie to 
deliberate on the matter. Governor Clinton, the presi- 
dent of the Convention, was a stanch anti-federalist ; 
while Alexander Hamilton and John Jay assumed the 
leadership of the federalist party, which was in the 
minority in the Convention. The State, at this time, 
was emphatically anti-federahst ; the city, on the con- 
trary, eminently federalist. In the latter, a society had 
been organized some time before under the name of 
Federal-Republicans, with John Lamb as chairman and 
his son-in-law, Charles Tillinghast, as secretary, to con- 
cert measiyes to prevent the adoption of the Constitution 
with its opponents throughout the Union, and this party 
through their organ, Greenleaf's Patriotic Register — the 
Holt's Gazette of the Revolution — assailed the actions 
and motives of the federalists, and stimulated the 
opposition of their friends at Poughkeepsie. The fede- 
ralists, on their side, spared nothing that might forward 
the success of their design. On the 23d of July, three 
days before the adoption of the Constitution, a thirty- 
two gun frigate, christened "the Federal Ship Hamil- 
ton," and manned by thirty seamen and marines under 
the command of Commodore Nicholson, was drawn by 
ten horses through the streets in procession from the 
Bowling Green to Bayard's Farm, in the vicinity 
of Grand .street, where tables were spread in the 
open air, and a plentiful dinner provided for the whole 
company, consisting of four or five thousand persons. 
This demonstration, the first procession of the kind 
ever witnessed in the city, excited the curiosity of the 



590 HISTORY OF THE 

public to the highest degree, and thousands flocked 
to the town from the neighboring country to witness the 
spectacle. The Patriotic Register, however, indulged 
freely in sarcastic remarks on the occasion, and so 
incensed the federalists, that, on the announcement on 
the 26th of the adoption of the Constitution, the spirit 
of mobocracy broke forth with violence, and a crowd 
of rioters, proceeding to the office of the paper in 
Pine street, broke open the door with axes, and 
demolished the press and types. Greenleaf, with an 
apprentice, after vainly endeavoring to defend his 
property, made his escape at the rear of the building 
into Wall street. 

e 

Emboldened by this success, the rioters next made 
their way to the house of John Lamb in Wall street, 
about midway between Pearl and William streets ;* but, 
anticipating the attack, preparations had been made for 
defence. The doors and windows were barred and the 
halls and stairways barricaded, and General Lamb, Col- 
onel Oswald, and Major John Wiley, with two youths and 
a colored servant, were stationed in the second stoiy 
with loaded muskets, while the youngest daughter of 
Gen. Lamb, with Miss Chapman, a visitor from Connec- 
ticut, and a colored servant, who had refused to quit the 
house, were stationed in the attic as a reserve force, with 
an ample suppl}^ of Dutch tiles and empty bottles to be 
launched at the heads of the rioters. The mob, now 



• John Lamb was at this time Collector of Customs for the port of New York, 
having been appointed to the office in 1784. A part of his residence was used for the 
Custom House, the business being not yet large enough to warrant a separate 
eslablislinient. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 591 

increased to thousands, surrounded the house, yelhng, 
shoutmg and threatening an attack, but to these the 
inmates made no reply ; and at lengtli the rioters, con- 
cluding the house to be either deserted or strongly 
garrisoned, held a council of war, and determined to 
withdraw. The city soon subsided into a state of quiet, 
and the new constitution was gradually acquiesced in 
by the opposition. 

On the 13th of September, 1788, the adoption of the 
Constitution was publicly declared, and the city of New 
York selected as the seat of the general government. 
This involved the need of more extensive accommoda- 
tions. The City Hall in Wall street, in which the Con- 
tinental Congress had been accustomed to meet, was fall- 
ing to decay, and the exhausted city treasury furnished no 
means wherewith to make the necessary repairs. In 
this emergency, a number of wealthy gentlemen 
advanced the requisite sum ; the Hall was remodelled 
under the direction of Major L'Enfant, and placed by 
the corporation at the disposal of the general govern- 
ment. On the 4th of March, 1789, the day appointed 
for the assembling of Congress, bells were rung and 
cannon fired, and the hall was thrown open for the 
expected session ; but only a handful of the members 
made their appearance. Unable to transact business in 
the absence of a quorum, they issued a circular letter to 
their colleagues — and waited. Their patience was put 
somewhat severely to the test. The roads were bad, 
railroads and steamboats unknown, packets and stages 
few, and punctuality, withal, regarded as a thing of 
minor importance ; and it was not until the 6th of Apiil 



592 HISTORY OF THE 

that enough of the straggling members of both houses 
had come in to constitute a quorum and enable them to 
declare the result of the election. On the day in ques- 
tion, both houses assembled in the Senate Chamber, the 
votes were opened and read, two lists made out, the 
House of Representatives withdrew to its chamber, the 
votes were counted, and George Washington was declared 
unanimously elected first President of the United States. 
John Adams, having received the next highest number, 
was declared elected Vice-President, and messengers 
were dispatched to the new officials to notify them of 
the result. 

John Adams was the first to arrive. Reaching New 
York on the 21st of April, he was met at the boundary 
line by Governor Clinton, with a military escort, and 
conducted to Kingsbridge. Here he was received by 
the Senate and House of Representatives, together with 
several companies of militia, and escorted to the City 
Hall, where he delivered his inaugural address. Two 
days afterward, Washington arrived. His journey from 
Mount Vernon had been a march of triumph. Every- 
where he was met with rejoicings, nor could he, with his 
utmost endeavors, extricate himself from these public 
exjDressions of their gratitude. He had wished to travel 
unostentatiously as a private citizen ; but he found this 
impossible without harshly repelling the heartfelt wel- 
come that was everywhere oflfered to him. At Alexandria 
he was greeted by a public entertainment, which was 
repeated at Georgetown ; on the confines of Pennsylva 
uia he was met by a large escort, headed by Miffiin, his 
ancient enemy, now governor of the State, who 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



593 




38 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 595 

conducted him to Philadelphia, where a splendid ovation 
was prepared for him ; and at Trenton, the bridge over 
which he had once retreated before Cornwallis to fall on 
the enemy's forces at Princeton, was strewn with flowers 
by a band of maidens, and he was escorted into the town 
with military honors by an immense concourse of 
citizens. At Elizabethtowu Point he was met by a com- 
mittee from both houses of Congress, which, embarking 
with him in a barge which had been splendidly fitted up, 
escorted him to the landing-place at the foot of Wall 
street, where Governor Clinton was in waiting to receive 
him, attended by the State and city officers. Landing 
at the stairs at the foot of Murray's Wharf, which had 
been decorated for the occasion, he was escorted by a 
large procession to No 1 Cherry sti'eet, formerly occupied 
by Samuel Osgood, which had been prepared for his 
reception, whence he proceeded to Governor Clinton's 
to dinner. In the evening, the city was splendidly illu- 
minated, and a brilliant display of fireworks closed the 
demonstrations. 

The Federal Hall was not yet finished, and a week 
elapsed before the arrangements for the inauguration could 
be completed. For this, the outer balcony of the Senate 
Chamber, looking down on Broad street, was chosen ; 
Congress having prescribed that the ceremony should 
take place in public and in the open air. The 30th of 
April was fixed for the inauguration. At nine in the 
morning, religious services were performed in all the 
churches. A little after noon, a procession was formed 
from the house of the President elect, consisting of the 
city cavalry, with the members of Congress and the 



596 HISTORY OF THE 

heads of departments in carriages, followed by Washing- 
ton alone in a carriage, his aid-de-camp and secretary, 
Colonel Hmnphreys and Tobias Lear, with the resident 
foreign ministers, also in carriages, bringing up the rear. 
Having reached the Senate Chamber, he was conducted 
by Vice-President Adams to his seat, then informed that 
all was ready for taking the oath of office. Upon this, 
he rose and proceeded to the balcony, followed by the 
Senate and House of Representatives. Adams, Knox, 
Steuben, and Hamilton, his old companions in arms and 
danger, grouped around him, Chancellor Livingston 
administered the oath, and, as he ended with the exclam- 
ation, " Long live George Washington, first President of 
" the United States !" the multitude rent the air with 
shouts of applause. Returning to the Senate Chamber, 
he delivered his inaugural address, then proceeded on 
foot, with the whole assembly, to St. Paul's church, 
where prayers were read by Bishop Provost, lately 
appointed by the Senate as one of the chaplains of Con- 
gress ; after which, he was escorted back to his residence. 
In the evening, there was a display of fireworks on the 
Battery, and the houses of the French and Spanish 
ministers were brilliantly illuminated. A month later, 
Mrs. Washington arrived, and was received at the 
Battery with the federal salute of thirteen guns, and 
escorted from the landing-place with military honors. 

This ceremonial over, WasMngton's life in New York 
was simple and unostentatious. The new presidential 
mansion, to make room for which the old fort had been 
levelled in 1787-88, had not yet been completed, nor 
was it \nitil after the removal of Congress, when it 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 597 

became the residence of Governor Clinton, and was some 
time afterward transformed into the Custom House. 
During the first session of Congress, he continued to 
occupy the house which had been assigned him in Cherry 
street, the accommoclatious of which were so limited that 
three of his secretaries — Humphreys, Nelson, and Lewis 
— were obliged to content themselves with a single room. 
Tobias Lear, his principal secretary, with his assistants, 
Thomas Nelson, and Robert Lewis ; his aides-de-camp, 
Colonel Humphreys and jNIajor Jackson, and ]\Irs. Wash- 
ington with her two gi-audchildren, formed his house- 
hold. His house was handsomely but plainly furnished. 
On Tuesdays, from three to four, he held a public levee ; 
on Thursdays, he gave congressional dinners ; and on 
Friday evenings, Mrs. Washington held her receptions. 
The wliole establishment savored of republican sim- 
plicity, the chief tendency toward luxury being shown 
in the horses, which were remarkably fine, and were 
groomed with scrupulous care. Washington was simple 
and abstemious in his habits. He rose regularly at four 
o'clock, and went to bed at nine. On Saturdays, he 
sought relaxation from his labors by riding into the 
country, either on horseback, or with his family in the 
coach-and-six. In the evening, he sometimes visited the 
theatre in .John street, at that time the only one in the 
city, which had been erected during the occupation of the 
British, and used by the officers for amateur theatricals.* 

* The earliest theatricals in New York were. in a store on Cruger's Wharf, near Old 
Slip, where a number of youngmeu used to meet and amuse themselves with amateur 
performances. The first regular theatre was a stone building, erected in 1750 in the 
rear of the Dutch Church in Nassau street. Mr. Hallani was the manager, with a 



598 HISTORY OF THE 

In this theati-e, " which was so small," says Ciistis in his 
' ' Recollections and Private Memoirs of the lafe and 
" Character of Washington," "that the whole fabric might 
" easily have been placed on the stage of one of our 
" modern theatres ;" the stage boxes were set apart for 
the Pi'esident and Vice-President and adorned with ap- 
propriate emblems and decorations. The playbills were 
inscribed Vivat Repiiblica. The performances were 
good, and the company included several players of 
merit, among whom was Morris, who had been the asso- 
ciate of Garrick in the beginning of his career. It was 
here that the national air of " Hail Columbia" was first 
played, having been composed by Fyles, a German 
musician, the leader of the orchestra, in compliment to 
the President. On Sunday morning, when the weather 
was fine, "Washington and his family attended St. Paul's 
church, wliere his pew could long be seen ; in the even- 
ing, he read to Ms wife, receiving no visitors. He laid it 
down as a rule to return no visits, and gave no dinner 
invitations except to officials and foreigners of distinc- 
tion. For some time, the adoption of a title suitable to his 
position was discussed by Congress, but was finally aban- 
doned by common consent, and the simple but dignified 
address of "President of the United States," first con- 
ferred on him by the House of Representatives in reply 



tolerably good company; but, after a time, he removed to Jamaica, and the 
theatre was, in consequence, pulled down. The second was a wooden building, 
in Beekman street, a few doors befcw Nassau, erected with the permission of 
Lieutenant-Governor Golden, by Philip Miller in 1769. This was destroyed by the 
Liberty Boys during the days of the Stamp Act, in revenge for some insulting allusion 
in the play. The next in order was the theatre in John street, above ciird. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 599 

to his inaugural speech, adhered to theu and henceforth 
by the nation. 

During the residence of Washington in Cherry street, 
he was attacked by a dangerous ilhiess, which rendered 
a surgical operation necessary. The elder and younger 
Drs. Bard were his physicians. Washington bore the 
torture with surprising firmness. " Cut away — deeper, 
deeper still ;" exclaimed the father to his son, wliom he 
had deputed to perform the operation through distrust of 
his own nerves, " don't be afraid ; you see how well he 
bears it." For a time, he was considered in a critical 
situation, and the greatest anxiety was manifested in the 
city. The pavement in front of his residence was 
strewn with straw, and chains were stretched across the 
neighboring streets ; but the operation proved eminently 
successful, and his speedy recovery removed all cause of 
alarm. Upon his convalescence, he set out upon a tour 
through the New England States, from which he returned 
a short time before the opening of the second session of 
Congress on the 8th of January, 1790. About the same 
time, he removed to the Macomb House, No. 39 Broad- 
way, afterward Bunker's Mansion House, where he con- 
tinued to reside during his stay in New York. 

This stay was not a long one. Since the first adoption 
of the federal constitution, the country had been in a fer- 
ment in respect to the location of the permanent seat of 
government. The eastern States preferred New York, 
Pennsylvania clamored for its return to Philadelphia or 
the vicinity, the people of New Jersey petitioned for its 
removal to the shores of the Delaware, while Maryland 
and Virginia, with the rest of the southern States, urged 



GOO HISTORY OF THE 

the banks of the Potomac as the central location 
During the first session, the banks of the Susquehanna 
had very nearly been chosen as the site ; and no sooner 
had the second session opened, than the discussion was 
renewed with unabated ardor. Each party persisted in 
urging its claims, and it was only by a somewhat curious 
compromise that an amicable arrangement was finally 
effected, and the District of Columbia selected as the 
cajiital of the United States. 

Early in the session, Alexander Hamilton, then 
Secretary of the Treasury, threw a new apple of discord 
into the assembly by proposing that, for the mainte- 
nance of the public credit, the general government 
should assume, not only the public foreign and domestic 
debt, amounting to fifty-four millions, but also the debts 
of the States, contracted during the Revolution, and 
estimated at twenty-five millions. The foreign debt was 
assumed without hesitation, as was also the domestic 
debt after considerable opposition, but here the question 
rested. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New 
Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina and a part of Penn- 
sylvania, joined in favoring the assumption of the debts 
of the States, while Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New 
Hampshire and the remaining part of the Pennsylvania 
delegation opposed the measure with so much acrimony 
that, at one time, a dissolution of the Union seemed 
inevitable. The debts of most of the opposing States 
were small ; some objected to thus increasing the power 
of the general government ; others, on the contrary, 
advocated it as a federal measure ; but neither party 
could claim a majority. At this juncture, as a last 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 001 

resort, a compromise was effected through the joint 
agency of Jefferson and Hamilton, and two of the Vir- 
ginian representatives were induced to vote for the 
assumption ; while the Northerners, in return, ceded the 
other point at issue, and fixed the permanent seat of the 
general government on the banks of the Potomac-; 
though, by way of salvo to the feelings of the disap- 
pointed Pennsylvanians, it was agreed that it should first 
remain for ten years at Philadelphia. The precise loca- 
tion was left to the President, who was to appoint com- 
missioners to choose a site within certain limits from the 
lands which had been proffered by Maryland and Vir- 
ginia. These States, as well as Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, in their eagerness to secure the capital of the 
nation, had not only offered to furnish the necessary 
ground, but also to appropriate money for the erection 
of the public buildings, and, in the impoverished state 
of the country, this saving of expenditure proved a 
strong argument in their favor. Both bills soon after 
passed the Senate, the former with various amendments ; 
the federal government agreed to assume the greater 
portion of the State debts in certain specified propor- 
tions, and the month of December, 1800, was fixed as 
the date of the opening session of Congress at the capital 
city of Washington in the new District of Columbia. 

Since the close of the war, Indian affairs had been m 
an unsettled state along the western and southern fron- 
tiers. Soon after the conclusion of peace with Great 
Britain, treaties had been negotiated with the various 
tribes which had taken part against the United States 
during the war ; but these adjustments had proved 



(302 HISTORY OF THE 

unsatisfactory, and the natives complained bitterly of the 
constant encroachments of the whites upon their boun- 
daries. In the Carolinas and Georgia, discontent 
ripened into open war. The Cherokees, who claimed 
the northern part of the States as well as the greater 
portion of the State of Tennessee, were worsted in the 
strife and forced to flee to the Creeks for protection ; the 
latter, who inhabited Alabama and Georgia, strengthened 
by an alhance with the Spaniards in Florida, carried on 
the war with greater success, and, headed by their chief, 
Alexander McGillivray, severely harassed the settle- 
ments of the Georgians. McGillivray was a half-breed, 
the son of a Scotchman, who, educated by his father in 
the best schools of Charleston, had inherited the chief- 
tainship through the line of his mother, according to the 
custom of the nation, and turned his talents and educa- 
tion to good account by devising ways and means to 
strengthen its power. Bred in a counting-house and 
familiar with mercantile affairs, he opened a profitable 
trade with the Spaniards, through whom he obtained 
the arms and ammunition necessary for the successful 
continuance of the war. 

Led by an enemy of superior intelligence, this out- 
break occasioned considerable alarm, and, soon after the 
opening of the first session of Congress, General Lincoln, 
Colonel Humphreys and David Griffin were dispatched 
as commissioners to the scene of contest to adjust the 
boundaries of the disputed territory. This was a tract 
of land, west and south of the Oconee River, which the 
Georgians claimed had been ceded to them by three 
successive treaties ; while the Creeks alleged that these 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 603 

treaties had been obtained by force or fraud, and there- 
fore could not be held as binding upon the nation. The 
commissioners were well received by McGillivray and 
his warriors, but, refusing to restore the lands, they 
effected nothing except to obtain a temporary cessation 
of hostilities. 

The next year. Colonel Marinus Willett was dispatched 
by Washington to open a new negotiation. Disguising 
himself as a simple trader, in obedience to his instruc- 
tions, he entered the Indian camp and sounded the dis- 
position of the natives ; then, throwing off the mask, he 
avowed his ei-rand, and invited McGillivray to go with 
him to New Yorlv to talk with the Great Father. To 
this proposal, McGillivray consented, and set out in the 
beginning of the summer, accompanied by twenty-eight 
chief and warriors of the nation. Their arrival excited 
considerable interest in the city. On landing, they were 
met by the Tammany Society, arrayed in Indian cos- 
tume, which escorted them to their lodgings on the banks 
of the North River at the tavern known henceforth as 
the Indian Queen. Here they remained for more than 
six weeks, negotiating the terms of a treaty with Gene- 
ral Knox, the commissioner appointed by Washington 
for that purpose, and, the matter being at length satisfac- 
torily arranged, the treaty was ratified, in true Indian 
style in Federal Hall in Wall street, on the 13th of 
August, the day after the adjournment of the second 
session of Congress. At 12 o'clock, the Creek deputa- 
tion was met by the President and his suite in the Hall 
of the House of Representatives, where the treaty was 
read and interpreted, after which, Washington addressed 



604 HISTORY OF THE 

the warriors in a short but emphatic speech, detaiUng 
and explaining the justice of its provisions; to each of 
which, as it was interpreted to them, McGiUivray and 
his warriors gave the Indian grunt of approval. The 
treaty was then signed by both parties, after which 
Washington presented McGiUivray with a string of 
wampum, as a memorial of the peace, with a paper of 
tobacco as a substitute for the ancient calumet, grown 
obsolete and unattainable by the innovations of modern 
times. McGiUivray made a brief speech in reply, the 
"shake of peace" was interchanged between Washing- 
ton and each of the chiefs, and the ceremony was con- 
cluded by a song of peace, in which the Creek warriors 
joined with enthusiasm. The warriors, indeed, had good 
reason to be satisfied with this treaty, which ceded to 
them all the disputed territory, and distributed presents 
and money liberall}^ among the nation. Almost imme- 
diately after its ratification, the Creeks returned to their 
homes in the South, leaving their name as a memorial to 
their place of entertainment. 

The visit of the Indians closed the official career of 
New York as the capital city of the nation, but this did 
not retard her prosperity, as at the time was greatly 
feared. Freed from the distractions of political excite- 
ment, the people turned their attention to mercantile 
pursuits, and soon made of their city the commercial 
centre of the western continent. In the autumn of 
1789, James Duane was succeeded in the mayoralty by 
Colonel Richard Varick, who, since the evacuation, had 
been the city recorder. Colonel Varick was a popular 
law3'er of the city, who had won his military title in the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 605 

sei'vice of Schuyler in the northern array, and, after wit- 
nessing the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga and the 
defeat of Burgoyne, had been aid-de-carap to Arnold till 
the discovery of his treason, after which he had served 
Washington as secretary until the close of the war. 

In 1793, war broke out between France and England, 
and on the 9th of April, just five days after the new« 
reached New York, Citizen G-enet arrived at Charleston 
as the accredited minister to the United States from the 
new French Republic. This war placed the nation in 
an embarrassing position. Bound on one hand to 
France by obligations of gratitude as well as by the con- 
ditions of a treaty of alliance, it was pledged on the 
other hand by the federal policy to preserve strict neu- 
trality in European wars. The nation became divided, 
the anti-federalists warmly espoused the cause of the 
French party, while the federalists, with Hamilton at 
their head, insisted that the treaty had been annulled by 
the change in the French government ; or, at all events. 
did not apply in case of an offensive war. Washington 
inclined to the latter opinion, and, while he received 
Genet as the minister of the Republic, proclaimed a strict 
neutrality in respect to warlike operations. This greatly 
displeased Genet, as well as the anti-federalists, who. 
warmly attached to France and detesting England, 
cheered on their late allies in their struggle for liberty, 
and warmly seconded the French minister in fitting out 
privateers from their .ports to cruise against nations Hos- 
tile to France. The journey of Genet through the States 
was a march of triumph. Everywhere, he was feted 
and caressed ; in Philadelphia, he met with an enthnsi- 



606 HISTORY OF THE 

astic reception, and in New York, where he arrived on 
the 8th of August, he was welcomed with ringing of 
bells and salutes of cannon in honor of the success of 
republican France. The opposition papers of the day — 
Freneau's Gazette and Bache's General Advertiser at 
Philadelphia, Greenleaf's Patriotic Register at New 
York, the Chronicle at Boston, and all the republican 
press beside, warmly espoused the cause of the minister, 
and commenced a crusade against the course of the gov- 
ernment. Encouraged by these manifestations of popu- 
lar sympathy, Genet fitted out numerous privateers 
from the American ports, manned in many cases by 
American seamen, which, in the course of a few months 
captured nearly fifty British vessels in direct violation 
of the President's proclamation of neutrality. On the 
12th of June, the Ambuscade, which had brought Genet 
to the United States, arrived at New York, where her 
officers and crew were welcomed with enthusiasm by the 
anti-federalists, now first called democrats in derision, 
by reason of their sympathy with the Jacobins of the 
French Revolution. The Liberty-Cap was hoisted on 
the flagstaff of the Tontine Colfee-House, and all true 
patriots exhorted to protect it ; tri-colored cockades 
were worn, the Marseillaise was chanted, and, for a sea- 
son, New York seemed transformed into a veritable 
French city. On the 22d of June, the Ambuscade sailed 
on a cruise, from which she returned on the 14th of 
July. During her stay in port, an event occurred which 
greatly incensed the friends of Genet, and certainly 
reflected no credit upon British honesty. On the 21st, 
a frigate appeared off Sandy Hook, which was reported 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



607 



by a pilot-boat that came iu as the Concorde, a consort 
of the Ambuscade, and, too eager to await her arrival, 
the lieutenant with a boat's crew went out to meet her. 
Deceived by the tri-colored flag, which was hoisted on 
their approach, the party mounted the decks, and found 
themselves prisoners of war on board the British frigate 
Boston. This act of treachery was severely and deserv- 
edly denounced by the republicans, who urged Captain 
Bompard of the Ambuscade to accept the challenge sent 
directly after by way of bravado by the British captain 
to meet him at sea, and even entered the lists themselves 
for the coming contest. Escorted by a fleet of pilot- 
boats, filled with spectators, the Ambuscade sailed down 
the bay on the 30th of July, and encountered the Boston 
off Sandy Hook. A bloody action ensued, in which Cap- 
tain Courtney of the Boston was killed, and his vessel 
disabled. Finding it impossible to hold out any longer, 
the British frigate at length bore away for Halifax, pur- 
sued for some distance by the triumphant Ambuscade. 

On the 3d of August, a French fleet of fifteen sail 
arrived at New York, where the officers were warmly 
received by the republicans. On the 7th of the same 
month, Genet arrived at Paulus Hook on his way to the 
Eastern States, and was greeted with extravagant 
demonstrations of welcome. Bells were rung, cannon 
fired, and a great meeting held in the fields, at which 
a committee of forty was appointed to wait upon the 
ambassador and escort him into the city. The federalists, 
on the other hand, backed by the Chamber of Com- 
merce, held counter-meetings, denouncing the conduct 
of the French minister, and warmly indorsing the 



bUO HISTORY OF THE 

proclamation of neutrality. Soon after his arrival, 
Genet strengthened his interests with the republican 
party by espousing the daughter of its leader, Governor 
Clinton ; the marriage ceremony being performed at the 
Walton House in Pearl street. 

The conduct of the French minister excited the indig- 
nation of the President and Congress, who ordered the 
captured prizes to be restored, and remonstrated with 
Genet against his contempt of their authority. Sus- 
tained by the powerful republican party, the ambassador 
openly justified his conduct ; and his correspondence at 
length grow so oflensive, that even Jefferson and Ran- 
dolph, who had hitherto defended him, joined with the 
opposite party in demanding his recall. Before the 
letter reached France, a great change had been wrought 
in the affairs of the republic. The Girondins, the 
friends of Genet, had fallen from power, the Reign of 
Terror, under the leadership of Robespierre, had com- 
menced, and the Jacobins, now the dominant party, 
made no difficulty in conceding the President's request. 
Genet was formally recalled from the ministry, and 
Citizen Fauchet appointed in his place, with instructions 
to approve the proclamation of neutrality. Genet 
remained in the United States, and died at an advanced 
age at his residence on Long Island. His sons still con- 
tinue residents of the city. 

The subsequent tragedies of the Reign of Terror 
destroyed much of the popular sympathy with the 
French republic. America became the refuge of the 
emigres, and this immense influx of foreign immigration 
wrought a visible change in the character of the people. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 609 

III New York, -where the exiles mostly congregated, was 
this change most of all apparent. French manners, 
French customs, French cookery, French furniture, 
French fashions, and the French language, came sud- 
denly in vogue, and for a season, Xew York seemed 
transformed into Paris. Another element was added to 
make up the cosmopolitan character of the city. It had 
been essentially Dutch and essentially English ; it now 
became essentially French ; and when the downfall of 
Robespierre recalled the exiles to their homes, and the 
city was vacated as suddenly as it had been filled, it still 
retained the impress of the invasion ; nor has it ever 
been wholly effaced, as all will acknowledge who have 
observed how much more predommant is the French 
element in this than in the other northern cities. 

In the summer of 1795, .John Jay, the newly-elected 
federal governor of New York, arrived from England 
with a new treaty ; rendered necessary by the repeated 
violations of the first, alleged by each nation against the 
other. The provisions of this treaty, which bound the 
United States to a strict neutrality in all wars between 
England and other nations, were denounced by the anti- 
federalist or republican party, as it had now come to 
be called, as a shameful repudiation of the obligations 
due by the country to France, and the most strenuous 
efforts were used to induce the President to refuse its 
ratification. In New York, the federalists were stronger 
in wealth — the republicans, in numbers. In the chart(>r 
elections from 1783 to 1803, the federahsts almost uni- 
formly carried six out of the seven wards of the city ; 
yet a large proportion of the inhaliitants were non- 



GIO HISTORY OF THE 

voters, deprived of the elective franchise by the property 
qualification, and many of these belonged to the repub- 
lican party. This faction had sympathized warmly with 
Genet in his efforts to provoke a new war with England, 
insisting that the United States stood pledged by honor 
to return the aid extended her in the Revolution, and to 
take up arms in defence of the new republic. 

No sooner had the new treaty become publicly 
known, than a mass meeting of the republicans was 
held in Boston, the treaty denounced as dishonorable 
and disadvantageous, and a committee appointed to 
state objections in an address to the President. A few 
days after, an anonymous handbill appeared in the 
streets of New York, calling on the citizens to meet in 
front of the City Hall on the 18th of July, to join with 
the Bostonians in expressing their opposition to the 
treaty. This was instantly met by a gathering of the 
federaUsts, who resolved to attend the meeting en masse, 
to present both sides of the question to the people. 

On the day appointed, an immense concourse assem- 
bled in front of the City Hall. Aaron Burr and Brock- 
hoist Livingston, the brother-in-law of Jay, who, with 
Chancellor Livingston and the rest of that influential 
family, had espoused the cause of the Republican party, 
appeared as the leaders of the opposition ; Alexander 
Hamilton and Richard Varick stood for the federaUsts 
and the treaty. The latter party at first took the lead, 
and succeeded in electing a chairman from among their 
number ; then proposed at once to adjourn the meeting. 
This proposal, of course, was opposed by the republicans, 
as making of the whole thing a farce, and defeating the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 611 

purpose of the meeting. A motion was made to leave 
the matter to the decision of the President and Senate 
and, the question being taken, both sides claimed the 
majority. A scene of violence ensued. Hamilton 
mounted the stoop of an old Dutch house which stood 
on the corner of Wall and Broad streets, with its gable 
end to the street, and attempted to speak in defence of 
the treaty, when he was rudely thrown from his place, 
and dragged through the streets by the excited multitude. 
A motion was made to appoint a committee of fifteen to 
report three days after, and a list of names was read 
and pronounced carried. The tumult soon increased to 
such a degree, that business became out of the question. 
" All you who agree to adjourn to the Bowling Green, 
" and burn the British treaty, wiU say Aye," shouted 
some one from among the mass. The thunder of the 
' ' Ayes " shook the watch-house on the south corner of 
Broad and Wall streets to its foundation, and the turbu- 
lent opposition ran, shouting and huzzaing, to the Bowl- 
ing Green, when the treaty was burned to the sound of 
the Carmagnole, beneath the folds of the French and the 
American colors. At the adjourned meeting, which was 
attended chiefly by the republicans, twenty-eight reso- 
lutions, condemnatory of the treaty, were reported by 
the committee, and unanimously accepted. The follow- 
ing day, a series of counter resolutions was adopted by 
the Chamber of Commerce, at this time composed almost 
exclusively of federalists, and on the 14th of August, 
the treaty was finally ratified by the Senate and signed 
by Washington. 

In the autumn of 1791, the vellow fever broke out in 



612 HISTORY OF THE 

the vicinity of Burling Slip. Though soon checked in 
its ravages by the approach of frost, it excited a panic 
among the inhabitants, and cut down several well known 
citizens, among others, General Malcolm of the Revo- 
lution. In 1795, it again made its appearance, about tht 
first of August, and raged with virulence during the 
remainder of the season, carrying off seven hundred and 
thirty-five of the citizens. But these visits were but the 
precursors of the coming pestilence. About the last of 
July, 1798, it again broke out with increased violence, 
heightened perhaps by the general alarm which at once 
diffused itself among the people. The whole community 
was infected with the panic, all who could fled the city, 
the stores were closed, the business streets deserted, and 
for many weeks the hearses that conveyed the victims 
of the pestilence to their last homes were undisputed 
possessors of the streets of the city. Most of the churches 
were closed ; Trinity, Christ's Church in Ann street, and 
the Methodist Chapel in John street alone remaining 
open. The Post-office was removed to the house of 
Dr. James Tillary on the corner of Broadway and Wall 
street, and the citizens came down for their letters from 
their retreats at Greenwich and Bloomingdale between 
the hours of 9 a.m. and sundown, the time at which the 
physicians pronounced it safe to visit the city. The 
greatest suffering prevailed, and contributions of money, 
provisions, and fuel poured in from the neighboring 
States for the relief of the poor, thus deprived of em- 
ployment, and hourly threatened with the death from 
which their poverty forbade them to flee. From the 
breaking out of the pestilence to the beginning of Novem 



i 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 613 

ber, when it ceased, the deaths amounted to 2,086, 
exckisive of those who had fled the city ; and this from 
a popuktion of fifty-five thousand. Strangely enough, 
not a single case occurred on the Long Island or Jersey 
shores. The fever lingered in the city for several years, 
breaking out with violence at intervals, yet at no time 
did its ravages equal those of '98. 

The contests between the federalists and republicans in 
the charter elections increased in violence, and the federal- 
ists began gradually to lose ground. In the election of 
1800, the Sixth and Seventh Wards were carried by the 
republican party, and, elated by their success, the victors 
put forth renewed efforts in the election of the following 
year. To evade the property qualification, requiring 
every voter to be a landholder, an association of thirty- 
three young men purchased a house and lot in the Fifth 
Ward, jointly on the principle of a tontine, and having 
thus rendered themselves eligible according to law, pre- 
sented themselves at the polls as republican voters.* 
The same scheme was adopted in the Fourth Ward by 
a club of seventy-one members. The election returns 
showed four wards for the republicans, and three for the 
federalists ; the Fifth Ward being carried in favor of the 



* The names of many of the members of this early Tontine Association after- 
wards became prominent in the politics of the State. They were as follows: Joshua 
Barker, S. Tiebout, A. Macready, Peter Black, Tenius Wortman, George I. Eacher 
Daniel D. Tompkins, Ricliard Riker, Thomas Hertell, Edmund Ferris, Arthur Smith 
William Boyd, William A. Davis, William Jones, Edmund Holmes, William P. Van 
Ness, John Sonnelle, Jas. W. Lent, Cornelius C. Van Allen, Jno. W. Woolf, Robert 
I. Livingston, John Jagger, Jas. Warner, Robert Swartwout, John L. Broome 
David Thompson, Joseph Brown, Samuel Lawrence, Gideon Kimberley, Henry Post 
Gordon S. Mumford, Maltby GcUton, John Drake. 



614 HISTORY OF THE 

former by a majority of six, and the Fourth Ward by 
thirty-five. This result was at once contested by the fed- 
eralists on the ground of illegal voting by the Tontine 
Association, and, being submitted to the decision of the 
retiring board, the majority of which belonged to that 
party, was pronounced nuU and void and the balance of 
power restored to the hands of the federalists. The State 
election having been decided in favor of the repubhcans 
by the election of ex-Governor George Clinton, Edward 
Livingston, the brother of the well-known chancellor 
of that name, received the appointment of mayor of New 
York. 



i 



CHAPTER XIX. 

ISOl. 
K(!»v York in the bcgioniug of the Nineteenth Century. 

At this time, the city, though the metropolis of the 
western world, was a mere village in comparison with 
the city of to-day. The city proper was bounded on 
Broadway by Anthony, on the North River by Harrison, 
and on the East River by Rutgers streets ; and even 
within these limits, the houses were scattering, and sur- 
rounded by large gardens and vacant lots. The farm- 
houses on Bowery Lane extended as far as Broome 
street ; the fields and orchards on either side reaching 
from river to river. From the Battery to Cedar street, 
Greenwich street was the outside street on the shore ; 
there, Washington street had been commenced and 
partly built upon one side to Harrison street, where it 
terminated abruptly in the river. 

Above Broadway was a hilly country, sloping on the 
east to the Fresh Water Pond, not yet quite filled in from 
the surrounding hills, and descending on the west to 
the Lispenard Meadows ; dotted with the picturesque 
country seats of wealthy citizens. Of the high hill at 
the junction of Broadway with Anthony street we have 



616 HISTORY OF THE 

already si^oken. This descended precipitously to the 
arched bridge at Canal street, thus forming a valley, to 
the north of which rose another high hill, falling oif 
abruptly to a pond in the space between Broome and 
Spring streets, through which Broadway was filled up 
and prolonged. 

At this time, Broadway ended at Astor Place, where 
a pale fence, stretching across the road, formed the 
southern boundary of the Randall Farm, afterward the 
endowment of the Sailor's Snug Harbor. The Old or 
Boston Post Road ran eastward, below Madison Square 
aioug the Rose Hill Farm,* by turn the property of Watts, 
Cruger, and G neral Grates, and wound its way by a cir- 
cuitous route to Harlem ; while the Middle Road, begin- 
ning in the Old Road near the entrance of the farm, 
afforded a direct avenue to the same village. The Kings- 
bridge or Bloomingdale Road, a continuation of the 
Bowery Lane, formed a junction with the Fitzroy and 
the Southampton Roads, and extended by the way of 
McGowan's Pass and Manhattanville to Kingsbridge, 
whence it continued to Albany. From the Bloomingdale 
Road, Love Lane, now Twenty-first street ran westward 
to the North River. 

On the site of Washington Square was the new 
Potter's Field, lately removed from its original locality 
at the junction of the Greenwich and Albany roads, 
where it had been established in 1794, and which was 
deemed too near the public thoroughfares by the city 
authorities, by whom Washington Square was selected on 

* This farm covered some twenty-five blocks of ground in tlie Eighteenth Ward. 
and was the proportv of John W;uts prior to the Revolution. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 617 

account of its retired location. The property owners in 
the vicinity of the latter protested strongly against the 
change, and even offered to present a piece of ground in 
another part of the city to the corporation, but the 
officials remained 6rm, and for many years the marsh in 
question continued to be used as a pauper burial-ground. 
The negro burial ground was at the corner of Broadway 
and Chambers street, on the site now occupied by Stuart's 
marble building. The churches, too, had their respective 
cemeteries, for it was not until 1813 that burials were 
first prohibited in the city below Canal street. 

Public gardens were at this time favorite institutions, 
and were scattered in profusion over the city. On the 
shores of the North River in the village of Greenwich 
were the Indian Queen's and Tyler's, both favorite places 
of resort. Between Lafayette Place and Fourth Ave- 
nue, on the site of the Astor Library, was Vauxhall Gar- 
den — not the original Bowling Green Garden, afterwards 
Vauxhall, at the junction of Warren and Greenwich 
streets, the resort of the early Dutch settlers — which had 
been purchased about the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury by a Swiss florist named Jacob Sperry, and after- 
wards sold by him to John Jacob Astor, who leased it 
to a Frenchman by the name of Delacroix, the proprietor 
at the time of which we are speaking. Far up on the 
Bloomingdale road was the Strawberry Hill House, after- 
wards christened Woodlawn ; and on the eastern side of the 
island was the fertile Kip Farm, which, though not num- 
bered among the places of public resort, was noted for its 
variety of choice fruit and flowers, and was often visited by 
Washington and his cabinet during his stay in the city. 



618 HISTORY OF THE 

Oil the hill at the junction of Broadway and Anthou}' 
streets, was a frame house with a brick front, which re- 
tained its 23lfi.ce until a few years since, and is probably 
remembered by many of our readers. On the east of 
this hill was the country seat of Colonel Barclay. 
Above, on the Bowery nearly opposite Bond street, was 
the residence of Andrew Morris, in the vicinity of which, 
on the corner of Third street, stood the Minthorne man- 
sion. To the west, above Bleecker street, were the seats 
of John Jacob Astor and "William Neilson, and in Laight 
street, just above St. John's Park, was the residence of 
Leonard Lispenard. At the northwest in the vicinity of 
Varick and Charlton streets was the celebrated Richmond 
Hill Mansion, built in 1770 by the British paymaster, 
Abraham Mortier, on grounds leased from Trinity Church, 
and occupied by Washington as his head-quarters during 
the Revolution. After the surrender of the city to the 
British, it became the residence of Sir Guy Carleton, after- 
ward Lord Dorchester. It subsequently became the 
property of Aaron Burr, and was his residence at the 
time of his fatal duel with Hamilton, and it was here 
that he was found by Dr. Hosack a few hours after, 
cahnly reading the Confessions of Rousseau in his bath, 
as if totally oblivious of the fatal tragedy. From his 
hands, it passed into the possession of John Jacob 
Astor, who converted it into the Richmond Hill theatre. 

On the block bounded by Fourth, Bleecker, Perry and 
Charles streets, was the now venerable Van Ness 
House, then owned by Abijah Hammond. These 
grounds originally formed a part of the extensive farm 
of Sir Peter Warren, the brother-in-law of James and 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



619 



Oliver lie Laucey, whose sou-in-law, the Earl of Abhig- 
clou, disposed of his share, consisting of fifty-live acres, in 
LT88 to David H. Mallen for the sum of twenty-two 
liundi-ed dollars. From his hands, it passed into the 
possession of Mr. Hammond, and was soon after dis- 
posed of to Whitehead Fish, who resided on it until his 
death in 1819, when it was purchased by Abraham Yau 
Ness, for fifteen thousand dollars. 

On the block of ground between the Ninth and Tenth 
Avenues, and Twenty-second and Twenty-third streets, 
stood the old Chelsea House, built before the Revolution 
by the widow of Thomas Clarke, one of the veterans of 
the old French war, who had purchased the estate a 
short time before his death, and named it Chelsea as the 
retreat of an old soldier. This subsequently became the 
residence of Bishop Moore of Columbia College, and 
was afterwards donated by him to his son, Clement C. 
Moore, who continued to reside in it until the levelling 
the grounds about it compelled its demoHtion. 

At Incleuberg, now Murray HiU, lying between the 
Foiu-th and Sixth Avenues, and Thirty-sixth and For- 
tieth streets, was the residence of Robert Murray, the 
father of the grammarian, notable for having been the 
place where the worthy Quaker matron, by her cordial 
hospitahty, detained the British generals long enough on 
the day of the capture of the city to secure to Silliman's 
brigade a safe retreat to Harlem In the neighbor- 
hood, nearly opposite on the Bloomingdale road, was 
the Varian House, and higher up at Bloomingdale was 
the Apthorpe Mansion, where, as we have already 
narrated. Washington narrowly escaped capture on 



620 



UISTORY OF TUE 




Murray Hill Cottage. 

the same eventful da}', while anxiously awaiting the 
arrival of his troops from the cit}' ; and also the 
Grange, the residence of Alexander Hamilton. On the 
shores of the East River, near Turtle Bay, stood the 
celebrated Beekman House, built by Dr. James 
Beekmau in 1764, and occupied in turn by the British 
commanders-in-chief as a country seat during the Revo- 
lution.''' Here, the unfortunate Xathan Hale was tried 



* The fine situation and extensive ground of this house made it a favorite resi- 
dence of the British officers. During tlie Revolution, it was occupied from the loth 
of September, IVVfi, by General Howe, seven and a half months; from the 1st of 
May, 17T7, by Commissary Loring, one year and five months; from the 20th of 
October, 177S, by General Clinton, three years and six months; from the 1st of 
May, 17S2, by General Robertson, eleven and a half months ; from the ICth of 
April, 17S3, by Mr. Beekman ; and from the 16th of June, 1783, to the evacuation 
by General Carleton, five months ; in the whole, seven years, one and a half months. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 621 

and seuteuced to death, and confined in the greenhouse 
of the garden on the night preceding his execution. 
Near this, on the banks of the river, was the ancient 
Cruger Mansion, now tenanted by General Gates, and 
known as the rendezvous of the leading spirits of the 
day. 

On the shores of the Harlem River, just below the 
High Bridge of the Croton Aqueduct, stood Colonel 
Roger Morris' House, a large, old-fashioned, two story 
building, commanding a fine view of the river from its 
elevated position, which had been the headquarters of 
Washington after his forced evacuation of the city. The 
old house is still standing, now known as the residence 
of Nelson Chase. 

On the block bounded by Montgomery, Clinton, 
Cherry, and Monroe streets was the old Belvidere House, 
built on the banks of the East River in 1792 by thirty- 
two gentlemen, composing the Belvidere Club, and used 
for many years afterward as a place of public resort • 
and near this, in the vicinity of Cherry street, was the 
residence of Colonel Rutgers, with the cottage of Marinu? 
Willett in close proximity.* 

In Pearl, opposite Cedar street, was the residence of 
Gov. George Clinton, the headquarters of Washington 
on assuming the command of the army at New York. 
Further down on the corner of Pearl and Broad streets, 
was the well-known Fraunces' Tavern, the headquarters 
of Washington after the evacuation of the city by the 
British troops, and the scene of his final parting with his 
officers. This house was built about 1730 by the 
De Laneey family, and was sold by Oliver De Lancey, in 

* Used also for a liotel. 



G22 HISTORY OF THE 

17G2, to Samuel Fraunces, who soon after opened it as a 
public tavern. It soon became notable as a Saturday 
night rendezvous of a gathering of choice spirits calling 
themselves the Social Club, and, though Fraunces was a 
well-known friend of the Liberty Party, was a favorite 
of both "Whigs and Tories, who harmonized in their taste 
for the choice wines of the proprietor. 

At the lower end of Bi-oadway stood the Kennedy 
House, late the "Washington Hotel, built in 1760 
by Captain Kennedy, afterward Earl of Cassilis, and 
bequeathed by him to his son Robert, from whom it 
passed into the possession of the late Nathaniel Prime. 
This house was the headquarters of Putnam prior to, and 
of Howe and Clinton during the Revolutionary "War, 
and the scene of Andre's last interview with the British 
general previous to his departure on the fatal "West 
Point mission. Just above this was the King's Arms 
Tavern, a double house, two stories in height, with a 
front of yellow Holland brick, and a steep roof, covered 
with shingles in front and tiles in the rear, the headquar- 
ters of General Gage during his residence in the city. 
This afterwards became known as Burns' Coffee House, 
the well-known rendezvous of the Sons of Liberty, and the 
place from which emanated many of the patriotic resolves 
of the New York citizens. It was in this house that the 
first non-importation agreement of the colonies was signed 
by the mercliants of the city of New York on the even- 
ing preceding the execution of the Stamp Act, and the 
first step thus taken toward the rebellion which ripened 
into their future independence. Here Arnold resided 
after the discovery of his treason, and it was from the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 623 

garden, which extended down to the river, that the ehi- 
vah'ic Champe proposed to abduct the traitor and carry 
him off in triumph to the American Hnes in the Jerseys. 

Above this, on the site of 39 Broadway — the reputed 
site of the first building ever erected on the island — was 
the Bunker Mansion House, the residence of Washing- 
ton during the second session of Congress. 

But a volume would scarce suffice to note all the land- 
marks, rendered interesting by some association of the 
past. 

The penal institutions of the island were the New Jail,* 
chiefly used for the imprisonment of debtors ; the 
Bridewell, in which vagrants and minor ofTenders were 
confined, as well as criminals, while awaiting their trial, 
and the State Prison in Greenwich village on the shores 
of the North River, for convicts of a higher grade. The 
latter was a large stone building, surrounded by a high 
wall on which an armed sentry was constantly pacing. 
It was opened for the reception of convicts in August, 
1796, and was the second State Prison in the United 
States. In the course of a few years, the number of 
prisoners in this institution, as well as in the Bridewell, 
became so great that it became necessary to erect 
another building for their reception, and a Penitentiary 
for the imprisonment of minor offenders was accordingly 
built on the shores of the East River at Bellevue. This 



* The first building used for a jail was on the corner of Dock street and Coen- 
ties Slip. After the erection of the City Hall in Wall street, the criminals were 
confined in dungeons in the cellar, while the debtors were imprisoned in the attic 
apartments, from the dormer-windows of which they used to hang out old shoes and 
ba,5« to solicit alms of the passers by. 



624 HISTORY OF TUE 

institution, which was opened on the 16th of May, 1816, 
was a stone building, one hundred and fifty feet in length 
by fifty in breadth, and three stories high. In close 
proximity to it stood the New Alms House, opened in 
the spring of the same year ; a blue stone building, 
three hundred and twenty-five feet in front, with two wings 
of a hundred and fifty feet in depth each. In 1826, the 
Bellevue Hospital was built near by, and the three build- 
ings, inclosed by a stone wall, including twenty-six 
acres, were known henceforth as the Bellevue Establish- 
ment. The criminals in these institutions were set to 
work for the benefit of the State at breaking stone, 
picking oakum, etc. Through the efforts of Stephen 
Allen, then mayor of the city, and others, the tread-mill 
system was introduced into the Penitentiary in 1822, 
but after a few years' trial, was found inexpedient and 
abandoned. Upon the opening of the new State Prison 
at Sing Sing in 1828, the convicts were removed to it 
from the prison at Greenwich, and their places supplied 
by the prisoners from the Bridewell and the New Jail. 
In 1838, the Bridewell was demolished, and the stone of 
which it was composed was worked up into the Tombs, 
then in process of erection. The New Jail had some 
time previously been transformed into the modern Hall 
of Records. When this change was made, the fire alarm 
bell, which had hung in the belfry during the Revolution, 
was taken down and placed upon the Bridewell, where 
it remained until the demolition of the latter. A cher- 
ished relic of the firemen, it was then transferred to the 
engine house of the Naiad Hose Co., in Beaver street, 
where it remained until it rung out its own funeral knell 



CITY OF NEW YORK. G25 

for the great fire of 1835, which swept it to the ground 
and destroyed it forever. 

In 1825, the penal institutions of the city were 
increased by the estabUshment of a House of Refuge 
for juvenile offenders, which was founded under the 
auspices of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenik^ 
Delinquents, an outgrowth from the Society for the Pre- 
vention of Pauperism, organized in 1818 by a number 
of the prominent philanthropists of the city. The House 
of Refuge was incorporated in 1824, and opened on the 
1st of January, 1825, in the United States Arsenal in 
Madison Square, with nine inmates — six boys and three 
girls. On the destruction of the building by fire in 1839, 
the institution, now grown into considerable impor- 
tance, was transferred to the fever hospital at the foot of 
Twenty-third street on the East River, where it remained 
for fifteen years, when, its increasing wants demanding 
enlarged accommodations, the present institution was 
erected on Randall's Island, and the inmates removed to 
it in 1854.* 

In 1801, the New York Hospital, the charter of whicli 
had been granted by Lord Duumore, in 1771, to Peter 
Middleton, John Jones, and Samuel Bard, the three most 
eminent physicians of the day, and the corner stone of 
which had been laid in 1773, by Governor Tryon, was 
the only institution of the kind in the city. This build- 
ing, which had been almost consumed by fire before its 
completion, then transformed into bai'racks for the 
British troops during the Revolutionary War, wa? 



For many of the^c details we are indebted to Israel Russell, Est). 
40 



626 



HISTORY OF THE 



enlarged and reiDaired after Ihe restoration of peace, 
and opened for the reception of patients in 1791. In 




1807, a Lunatic Asylum was erected on the southerly 
side of the Hospital grounds, near the main edifice, and 
corresponding with it in the style of architecture, wliich 
was opened in the following 3'ear. This was used for its 
original purpose during fourteen years, when an asylum 
was built at Bloomingdale, overlooking tlie Xorth River, 
on the west side of Tenth Avenue, near One Hundred 
and Seventeenth street, to which, in 1821, the patients 
were removed. Tlie single dispensary for the aid 
of the out-door sick was the City Dispensary, located in 
a small building in the rear of the City Hall, fronting on 
Tryon Row, which had formerly been occupied by the 
Health office. This was instituted in 1790, and incorpo- 
rated on the 8th of April, 1795, under the name of the 
Xew York Dispensary. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 627 

The only medical school in the city iu the beginning 
of the nineteenth century was the Medical Faculty of 
Columbia College, organized in 1768 through the efforts 
of Drs. Bard, Middleton and others. In tlie Revolution, 
which followed soon after, the association was scattered 
and the college converted into a military hospital. In 
1792, it was again revived, with Dr. Samuel Bard as 
dean of the faculty, and remained the only school of the 
kind in the city until the institution of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, with Dr. Romayne at the head, 
in 1807, under the patronage of the Regents of the Uni- 
versity. In 1813, a fusion was effected between the two 
rival schools, who continued to work together until 1826, 
when differences arose, which finally resulted in a sepa- 
i-ation of the college, and the foundation of the Rutgers 
Medical College, located in Duane street near Broad- 
way, with Drs. Hosack, MacNeven, Mott, Francis, 
Grodman and Griseom as its first professors. Drs. John 
Augustine and Joseph M. Smith, Dana, Beck, Stevens, 
and Delafield formed the professorial staff of the rival 
college. 

At the foot of Park Place, was the venerable Colum- 
bia College, opened in 1755 under the presidency of 
the Rev. Samuel Johnson ; then abandoned by its presi- 
dent, Myles Cooper, in the Revolution, and converted 
first into barracks and afterward into a military hos- 
pital. Upon the restoration of peace, a number of 
gentlemen were appointed by the Legislature, under the 
title of Regents of the University, to superintend the 
literary institutions of the State, and empowered to 
act as Trustees of the College. In 1787, the institu- 



628 



HISTORY OF THE 



tion was reorgamzed, the royal charter confirmed by 
the legislature, and William Samuel Johnson, LL.D.. 
appointed first president under the new regime. In 
1801, he was succeeded by the Rev. Charles Wharton, 
who resigned the office a few months after, when it was 
bestowed upon Bishop Moore, who had acted as presi- 
dent pro tern, in 1775, during the absence of Cooper. 




Old Columbia College at the foot of Park Place. 

The benevolent institutions wore the Marine Society, 
incorporated in 1770, fur the improvement of maritime 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 629 

knowledge, and the relief of indigent sea-captauis, their 
widows and orphans ; the Chamber of Commerce, formed 
in 1768 and incorporated in 1770, "for the purpose of 
" promoting and extending all just and lawful commerce 
" and for affording relief to decayed members, their 
"widows and children;" the Humane Society, estab- 
lished in 1787, for the purpose of affording relief to dis- 
tressed debtors, and afterward extended so as to include 
the resuscitation of persons apparently drowned, as well 
as the relief of the poor in general, and incorporated in 
1814 ; the Manumission Society, established chiefly by 
Friends in 1785 for the purpose of ameliorating the con- 
dition of negro slaves throughout the State and bestow- 
ing upon them an education, and incorporated in 1808 ; 
the Sailor's Snug-Harbor, founded by Captain Randall 
in 1801 for the benefit of worn out and decrepit seamen, 
and the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, 
formed in 1784, and incorporated in 1792, for the relief 
of the necessitous among their number, and for the sup- 
port of the widows and children of those who might die 
in indigent circumstances. In 1821, the Mechanics' 
Institute in Chambers street between Chatham street and 
City Hall Place was built by the Society, and a school 
and library established for the education of its proteges. 
Besides the societies which we have mentioned, were the 
Society of the Cincinnati, founded at the close of the war 
by the patriots who, like their Roman namesake, had 
relinquished the sword for the plough, for purposes of 
general benevolence, and into which none but Revolu- 
tionary soldiers and their descendants were admitted : 
the Tammany Society or Columbian Order, founded 



630 HISTORY OF THE 

nearly at the same time, into which, in opposition to the 
exclusiveness of the former, all were admitted without 
regard to ancestry ; the St. .Andrew's Society, founded 
m 1756, and several masonic and other societies. 
Among the most remarkable of these was the Tontine 
Association,* founded in 1790 and incorporated in 1794 
by a company of merchants for the purpose of providing 
a centre for the mercantile community. By the plan of 
this association, each shareholder selected a nominee, 
during whose life he was to receive his equal proportion 
of the net proceeds of the establishment ; but upon 
whose death his interest reverted to the owners of the 
.surviving nominees. The original shai'es were assign- 
able and held as personal estate, and the whole property 
was vested in five trustees, who were to hold the pro- 
perty until the number of the surviving nominees was 
reduced to seven, when the whole was to be divided 
among the fortunate seven shareholders depending upon 
them. Under these regulations, two hundred and three 
shares were subscribed for at two hundred dollars each, 
and with this sum the Association purchased a lot of 
ground a hundred feet square on the corner of Wall and 
Water streets, and in 1790 commenced the erection of 
the Tontine CofFee-House, to which, upon its completion 
in 1794, the Merchant's Exchange was removed from 
the dilapidated old building in the centre of Broad below 



* The plan of this A.'sociation originated from tlic scheme of Lorenzo Tonti, t 
Xeapolitaa, who introduced a similar scheme into France in 1653, during the reign 
of Louis XIV. ; whence the word Tontine came to designate a loan advanced by j 
n\irabcr of associated capitalists for life annuities with the benefit of survivorship. — 
See Valentine's Manual for 1852. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



G31 




y ^ W "■"T. '*'» >) III in 






The BiUe H u l m Li Lth stiLtt bttween Third and Fourth Avenues 



Pearl street where it had been located since the Revolu- 
tion. After the erection of the new Exchange in Wall 
street, in 1825, the building was let for various pur- 
poses ; tlien, in May, 1855, was demohshed to make 
room for the subsequent Tontine Building. 

Many other societies sprang into Ijenig in the course 
of the next half century — the Bible and Common Prayer 
Book Society, instituted in 1809 ; the Protestant Epis- 
copal Tract Society, founded in 1810, and the American 
Bible Society, established in 1816. Next came the 
various Missionary Societies — the Xew York Sunday 
School Society, established in 1816 — the outgrowth of ? 



032 niSTORT OF THE 

little Sunday School opened in 1811 by a few young 
women of the Society of Friends for the purpose of 
teaching adult colored women ; the American Tract 
Society, instituted in 1825, the City Tract Society, 
founded during the ensuing year, and many more beside. 
The Reformed Dutch Church still continued predomi- 
nant in the city which had been founded by its members. 
This was, indeed, the oldest denomination in America, 
having been organized in New Amsterdam with a hand- 
ful of members as early as 1620. For a long time, the 
church continued to retain its distinctive customs and 
even language ; the first English sermon ever listened to 
by the denomination having been delivered as lately as 
1764 by Dr. Laidlie in the Middle Dutch Church in Nas- 
sau street. Even at this late date, the innovation of a 
foreign tongue was stoutly opposed by the ancient 
Knickerbockers, but was sanctioned by the Consistory 
as a matter of policy — the only means whereby they 
could restrain the younger members of their congrega- 
tions, who had well-nigh forgotten the language of their 
sires, from straying off to listen to the more familiar 
English tongue as preached in the churches of other 
denominations Laidlie, invited to become the English 
colleague of DominesRitzma and De Ronde, at that time 
the officiating ministers of the South and Middle Dutch 
Churches, at once opened a crusade against the dances 
and merry holiday amusements which had come down 
from the genial times of the early settlers, and did much 
toward infusing the spirit of English asceticism among 
the descendants of the jovial sires of New Amsterdam. 
All the ministers who succeeded him preached in English 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 633 

only, with the exception of Dr. Livingston and Dr. Kuy- 
pers, the latter of whom preached for many years in 
both languages. The last sermon in the Dutch lan- 
guage was preached in 1803. 

The customs that prevailed in the Reformed Dutch 
churches were, indeed, peculiar ; many of them still 
exist among the denomination, nor are tlie traditions of 
any wholly lost. Unlike the plainly attired Puritan 
preachers, the domines invariably appeared in the high, 
circular pulpit, clad in a gown of black silk, with large, 
flowing sleeves ; and so indispensable was this livery 
deemed, that, at the installation of a domine in the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, who came unpre- 
pared with a gown for the occasion, the senior clergy- 
man peremptorily refused to officiate, and the ceremony 
would have been postponed for a week, had not a robo 
been opportunely furnished by a friendly minister. 

The tall pulpit was canopied by a ponderous sound- 
ing-board. The first psalm was set with movable 
figures, suspended on three sides of the pulpit, so that 
every one on entering might prepare for the opening 
chorus. Pews were set aside for the governor, mayor, 
city officers, and deacons, and the remaining seats were 
held singly by the members for their life, then booked, 
at their death, to the first applicant. The clerk occupied 
a place in the deacon's pew, and prefaced the exercises in 
the morning by reading a chapter from the Bible, and, 
in the aftenioon, by chanting the Apostolic Creed, to 
divert the thoughts of the people from worldly affairs. 
All notices designed to be publicly read were received 
by him from the sexton, then inserted into the end of a 



634 HISTORY OF THE 

long pole, and thus passed up to the cage-like pulpit, 
where the minister was perched far above the heads of 
the congregation. It was his business, too, when the 
last grains of sand had fallen from the hour-glass which 
was placed invariably at the right hand of the domine, to 
remind him by three raps with his cane that the time 
had come for the end of the sermon. A story is told of 
a domine who, one hot summer's day, seeing the clerk 
asleep and the people drowsy, quietly turned the 
glass himself, and, after seeing the sands run out for the 
second time, remarked to the congregation that, since 
they had been patient in sitting through two glasses, he 
would now proceed with the third. 

Before entering the pulpit, the domine raised his hat 
before his face, and silently offered a short prayer for a 
blessing on his labors. After uttering the concluding 
word of his text, he exclaimed. Thus far ! before pro- 
ceeding with his sermon. This custom is preserved to 
this day in some of the country churches. 

When the sermon was over, the deacons rose in their 
places, and, after listening to a short address from the 
domine, took each a long pole with a black velvet bag 
attached to the end, from which a small alai'm-bell was 
suspended, and passed about the church to collect alms 
for the poor. One of the bells used in the old Dutch 
church in Garden street, is still preserved in the office 
of the Christian Intelligencer, the present organ of the 
denomination in the city. In the earlier times, boxes 
strongl}' bound with iron, with a hole in the lid, which 
was fastened by a padlock, were placed at the doer to 
receive the alms of the consrregation on their exit. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



635 











Reformed Dutch Chnrch, Corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first Street. 



CITY OF NEW YORU. 637 

At the Lord's supj^er, the communicants, invariably 
dressed in bhxck, stood round the communion-table at 
the foot of the pulpit, and received the emblems from 
the minister's ov/n hands, while the clerk read a suitable 
selection from the Scriptures. The stone church built 
by William Kieft in 1642 having been destroyed by fire 
in tho days of the negro plot, the oldest church edifice 
of this denomination at the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, was the South Dutch Church in Garden street. 
This was of an octagonal form, with a brick steeple large 
enough to aflord space for a consistory room. The 
windows were large, with very small window-panes set 
in lead, and curiously emblazoned with the coats of arms 
of the church dignitaries ; several escutcheons also hung 
against the wall. In 1776, it was enlarged and repaired, 
but at the time of which we speak, it was not open for 
service. In 1807, it was rebuilt and repaired ; then 
destroyed in the conflagration of 1835 ; when two con- 
gregations arose from its ashes, the Dutch church on 
Washington Square, and the South Reformed Dutch 
Church on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-first 
street. 

In Nassau street was the Middle Dutch Church, sub- 
sequently, the Post-office. This was at first built with- 
out pillars or gallery ; the ceiling forming an entire arch 
without support. On the introduction of the English 
service in 1764, the pulpit was removed from its original 
place on the east side to the north end of the church, 
and galleries were built on the east, west and south 
sides. Of its use while the city was in the hands of the 
British, we have already spoken ; in 1789-90, it was 



83S HISTORY OF THE 

restored to its primitive state, and continued unaltered 
until 1844, when it was purchased by the United States. 
On the Sunday evening before its final surrender by the 
congregation, the old building was thronged to its 
utmost capacity by those anxious to take a last leave of 
this relic of the olden times. The farewell exercises 
were conducted in Dutch and English by Drs. Knox and 
De Witt, a sermon was jareached, a historical sketch of 
the structure given, a psalm sung, and the benediction 
pronounced — the last words of prayer that were uttered 
in the old building, being spoken in the language of the 
ancient Knickerbockers.* 

In William street was the North Dutch Church, a sub- 
stantial building of brown stone, one hundred feet long by 
twenty wide, built originally with a tiled roof, for which 



• The Dell of this church still summons the congregation of the Reformed Dutch 
Church in Lafayette Place, and has a curious history. It was presented to the 
church by Col. Abraham De Peyster, who died in 1728, while the edifice was in 
the process of erection, and directed in his will that the bell should be procured 
from Holland at his expense. It was made at Amsterdam in 1731, and it is said 
that a number of citizens cast in quantities of silver coin at the fusing of the metal. 
When, in 1776, the church was converted into a riding-school for the British dra- 
goons, the bell was taken down by one of the De Peyster family, and secreted tintil 
some years after the evacuation of the city; when the church was repaired and 
opened again for service, and the bell restored to its rightful position. Upon the 
transformation of the church into the Post-office in 1844, it was removed to the 
church in Ninth street near Broadway, where it remained until 1853, when the 
building changed hands, and the bell was removed to the church in Lafayette 
Place. The bell is fancifully gilt, and bears the inscription : " Me fecerunt 
■ De Gravae et }f. MuUer, Amsterdam, Anno 1731. 

"Abraham De Peyster, geboren den 8 July, 1657, gestorven den 8 Augustus, 
■' 1728. Een legal .aan de Nederduytsche Kerke, New York. (A legacy to the Low 
" Dutch Church at New York)." The silver baptismal basin procured for the Garden 
ttreet church in 1793, is still used iu the South Reformed Dutch Church in Fifth 
Avenue. 



I T y OF NEW YORK 



639 





Reformcil Dutch C'liurcli in Lafayette Piace. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



G41 




A J l/--^J 







Tl:-formeil Diitoh Cliiirch, Corner of Fifth Avenas aaii Twenty-niath Streul. 
41 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 643 

shingles were afterwards substituted. This was deiiiol- 
islied to make room for business in May, 1S75. At Har- 
lem was a small wooden cLurcli of great antiquity, and 
at Greenwdcli village was another, built also of wood in 
1782, and afterward enlarged. Drs. Livingston, Kuypers 
and Abeel were at this time the pastors of the Reformed 
Dutch churches of the city, consolidated under the title 
of the Collegiate Church of New York.* 

The Episcopalian, the next oldest religious denomina- 
tion, introduced soon after the cession of the city to the 
English, had at this time seven churches. Of these, the 
ancient Trinity, built in 1696, enlarged in 1737, burnt 
down in 1776, and rebuilt in 1788, was a Gothic edifice 
of considerable pretensions, surmounted by a tall spire, 
and furnished with a fine chime of bells, some of which 
still sound in the ears of our citizens. To this church 
two chapels were attaclied — a third was afterward added 
by the erection of St. John's in 1807 — St. Paul's in 
Broadway, a substantial stone edifice, built in 1766 ; 
and St. George's in Beekman street, built in 1752 ; of 
these the Right Rev. Benjamin Moore was rector, with 
the Rev. Drs. Hobart and Beach as assistant ministers. 
In Ann street was Christ Church, a stone edifice, built 
in 1794, long under the care of the Rev. Di'. Lyell ; 

* Tliis was the third church of the Reformed Dutch Consistory, and the 
one furthest north, the first being the South in Garden street, and the 
second the Middle, in Nassau street. U was built on land given it by John 
Harbendincli, a wealthy tanner, at the intersection of Horse and Cart Lane, 
(so called from a tavern \vith the sign of a horse and cart in William street,) 
and Fulton street, and cost .$00,000. The corner-stone was laid July 3, 1707, 
and the church was dedicated May 25. 1700. The tall steeple was burned 
October 27, 1809. A series of noon prayer-meetings, begun in the church 
September 17, 1857, continued until its demolition. 



04-1 HISTORY OF THE 

St. Mark's in Stuyvesant street, built in 1795 with 
the Rev. Dr. Harris as minister ; Zion Church on the 
corner of Mott and Cross streets, built in 1801, and under 
the pastoral care of the Rev. Dr. Pilmore ; and the 
Eglise du Saint Esprit, the church of the early Huguenots 
in Pine street, which, stripped of pulpit and pews during 
the Revolution, had been repaired in 1794, but was not 
opened for service until some time after. Grace Church, 
the ancestor of the present splendid structure at the 
apparent head of Broadway, was built soon after on the 
site of the old Lutheran Church at the corner of Broad- 
way and Rector streets. 

N'ext in order came the Lutherans ; but their ancient 
church in Broadway had been swept away by the fire of 
1776; and the only one that now remained to them was 
Christ Church, a stone building on the corner of Wil- 
liam and Frankfort streets, under the care of the Rev. Dr. 
Kunze, soon afterward succeeded by the well-known 
Rev. F. W. Geissenhainer. Li Nassau, near John street, 
was the German Reformed Church, erected in 1765, 
and differing slightly in tenets from the latter. 

Jfext came the Presbyterian denomination ; the first 
church of which was a stone building, erected in Wall 
street in 1719, and enlarged in 1748. In 1810, it was 
rebuilt in handsome style, only to fall a victim to the 
conflagration of 1834. It was rebuilt soon after, and 
occupied for eight or ten years, when, tempted by the 
increasing value of the ground, the congregation dis- 
posed of it for secular purposes, and removed to their 
new edifice in Fifth Avenue, between Eleventh and 
Twelfth streets. The old church was taken down, stone 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



645 





' £ 



Trinity (.'iiuRti. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



64^ 




Giact; Cliurtli. 



CITY OF NEW Y () R K . 



049 



by stone and put up again in Jersoy city, where it still 
remains one of the most conspicuous objects of the 
town. 









First Presbyteriau C'luiich, Fifth Avenue. 



In Beekman street was the Brick Church, afterwards 
known as Dr. Spring's, built in 1707, on the angular lot 
traditionally known as " the Vineyard," which had been 
granted by the corporation at a rent of forty pounds per 
annum, to John Rogers and Joseph Treat, ministers, 
and Julm Morin Scott, Peter R. Livingston, and others, 



6-50 HISTORY OF THE 

trustees, foi* an indefinite period. More fortunate than 
Its neighbor, tlie Brick Church escaped the great confla- 
gration, and remained a landmark of olden times until 
the widening of Beekman street in 1856-7 demanded its 
demolition, when the eongi'egation erected a new Brick 
Church on the comer of Fifth Avenue and Thirty-sev- 
enth street. The iron railing which had surrounded the 
church for so many years was taken down and removed 
to South Brooklyn, where it was set up about the resi- 
dence of the Hon. J. T. Stranahan. These were 
Associated churches, and were under the care of the Rev. 
Drs. Rogei's, McKnight, and Miller. The Rutgers street 
church, built in 1797, was a large frame building with a 
cupola and a public clock, and was under the charge of 
the Rev. Dr. MilledoUar. In Cedar street was the Scotch 
Presbyterian Church, built in 1758, for and at this time 
imder the charge of Dr. Mason ; and in Chambers street 
was the Reformed Scotch Presbyterian Church, a frame 
building, erected in 1797, for the Rev. Dr. Alexander 
McLeod. In 1807, a second Presbyterian Church was 
built in Cedar street for Dr. Romeyn, which became the 
ancestor of the Presbyterian Church in University Place, 
and that on the corner of Nineteenth street and Fifth 
Avenue, which was demolished a few years since. 

The first Baptist church in the city was an edifice of 
blue stone, erected in Gold street, near Fulton, in 1790, 
of A\hioh the Rev. Mr. Parkinson was pastor. This 
church was taken down in 1840, and the stone of Avhich 
it was composed worked up into the First Baptist Church 
on the corner of Broome and Elizabeth streets, which -was 
subsequently sold to the Lutherans. In Oliver street, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



051 




— wcfl:sn-~-s^- 



Presbyterian Church, formerly Corner of Fifth Avenue and Nineteenth street. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



653 







J:! " ' M I' 1 . 





i\, 'J 



IliLi^ J-l"-&£iil'^ 



St. Matthew's Lutheran Church, corner of Broome and Elizabeth streets. 



was another stone church of the same denomhiation, 
built in 1795, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1819 ; and in 
Rose street was another, built in 1799. 

The Methodist Church had its foundation in a small 
rigging loft in Horse and Cart Lane, now William street, 
where William Embury, a local preacher from Ireland, 
aided by Ctiptain Webb, of tlie British army, formed a 
nucleus of the disciples of AVesloy in 176G. Soon out- 
growing this humble tenement, the society purchased a 
lot of ground in John street, and, in 1768, erected a 
stone edifice which they christened Wesley Chapel. This 
was removed in 1817 to Harlem, and in 1840 the present 
chapel erected on its site. A second was built in Forsyth 
street in 1790, and a third in Duane street in 1795. 



654 



HISTORY OF THE 



Among the oldest of the religious societies was that of 
the Friends, whose first place of worship was erected in 
Green near Liberty street about 1706. This was rebuilt 
and enlarged in Liberty street in 1802, and afterward 
transformed into the seed store of the well-known Grant 
Thorburn. The second meeting-house of the denomi- 
nation, erected in Pearl street, in 1775, was taken down 
in 1824, to make room for other buildings. 

The Jews had a synagogue in Mill street — the street 
is now blotted out of existence — a neat stone edifice 
erected in 1730, nearly on the site of the small frame 
building which they occupied at first as a place of wor- 
ship. The Moravians had a church in Partition, now 
Fulton, near William street, erected in 1751, of which 






t 
'I 



'i\ 









i.l .\Iotl and I'niKi- ^U 



CITY OP NEW YORK. 655 

the Rev. Benjamin Mortimer was pastor. The only 
Catholic church in the city was St. Peter's in Barclay 
street ; a brick building erected in 1786. The next in order 
was St. Patrick's Cathedral, on the corner of Mott and 
Prince street, which was opened for service iu 1815. 
This was burned in 1866. 

The only library in the city was the Society Library, 
incorporated in 1772, a sketch of which we have already 
given. This was located in the library building in Nas- 
sau street opposite the Middle Dutch Church, then con- 
sidered an architectural ornament to the city. 

The Custom House was in the Government House, 
erected on the site of the old fort, in the place of the 
present Bowling Green Row. The Post-office was kept 
in the house of the postmaster, General Theodoras 
Bailey, on the corner of William and Garden streets,* in 
a room from twenty-five to thirty-five feet deep, with 
two windows fronting on Garden street, and a little ves- 
tibule on William street containing about a hundred 
boxes. An extension was afterwards added in Garden 
street, but it remained in the same spot until 1827, 
when it was removed to the basement of the new 
Exchange in Wall street. In 1844, it was transferred to 
the Middle Dutch Church in Nassau street, where it re- 
mained until August 28, 1875. 

Three banks were at this time in operation ; the Bank 
of New York, chartered in 1791, with a capital of 
$950,000, with Matthew Clarkson as president ; the 

• This house was also the residence of Sebastian Bauman, the first postmaster of 
the city subsequently to the Revolution, appointed to the office by General Wasb 
ington. 



656 HISTORY OF THE 

United States Bank, incorporated in the same year, with 
a capital of $10,000,000, with Cornelius Ray as presi- 
dent, and the Manhattan Bank, incorporated in 1799, 
with a capital of $2,050,000, with Daniel Ludlow as 
president. The Insurance Companies were three in 
number ; the N'ew York Marine Insurance, incorporated 
in 1798 ; the Mutual Fire Insurance, incorporated the 
same year, and the Washington Fire Insurance, incor- 
porated in 1801. Both the banks and the insurance 
companies were all located in Wall street. 

Seven daily papers were now issued in the city — the 
New York Gazette and General Advertiser, published by 
Lang & Turner ; the New York Evening Post, published 
by William Coleman and edited by M. Burnham ; the 
Ame7-ican Citizen, published by James Cheetham ; the 
Commercial Advertiser, published by Zachariah Lewis, 
and edited by J. Mills ; the Public Advertiser, edited by 
Charles Holt ; and the Mercantile Advertiser, published 
by Ramsay Crooks ; besides the New York Weckhj 
Musenm, published every Saturday by M. Harrison ; 
and two medical journals, the one published quarterly 
and the other semi-annually ; together with the Church- 
man^s Magazine, by T, & J. Swords. This house, which 
commenced business in 1787, continued in existence till 
1859, under the various titles of Stanford & Swords, 
Stanford & Delisser, and Delisser & Procter, and is notable 
for having been the first publishing-house established on 
a permanent basis in the city ; though books were issued 
occasionally from the presses of Gaine, Rivington, Hodge, 
Loudon, and other of the newspaper proprietors. 

Three stages sufiBced for the wants of the travelling 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



Go? 



community— the pioneers of the army of omnibuses of 
the present day. One of these ran to and from Green- 
wich, one to and from Harlem, and one to and from 
Manhattanville. The first stopped at Baiter's Tavern 
on the corner of Wall and New streets ; while the others 
started from tbe Bull's Head. The first omniljus seen 
in New York was in Broadway, in 1S30. 




The Park Theatre. 



The only theatre in the city at the beginning of the 
present century was the Park, built in 1798, and opened 
three nights in each week. This theatre was burned in 
1820, rebuilt and reopened in the following year, and 
burned again for the last time in 1840, when its site was 
covered with warehouses. This fronted the Park, from 
which it derived its name, between Ann and Beekraan 
streets, and long retained the theatrical monopoly of the 

42 



658 



UlSTORY OF THE 



city. Among those opened in the course of the next 
half century were the Chatham, erected in 1824, and 
growing out of the Chatham Garden, kept by Mr. Bar- 
rere ; the Xew York, now the Bowery, built in 1826 at 
the Bull's Head ; and the Lafayette opened in 1825 
in Laurens near Thompson street, under the manage- 
ment of Mr. Dinneford. Beside these, were the Broad- 
way ami Mount Pitt Circuses, the latter situated in 
Grand sti-eet, opposite the upper end of East Broadway ; 
the American or Scudder's Museum, oj^ened in 1810 in 
the IS'ew York Institution, once the Alms House, in 
Chambers street ; Peale's Museum in Broadway, oppo- 
site the Park ; tlie Chatham Museum established some 




Americau Museum, at tlie XortU cud of the Park. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 659 

time after by John Scudder, the son of the proprietor of 
the American Museum ; the Rotunda, erected in 1818 
in the east corner of the Park, with its entrance ou 
Chambers street, by John Vanderlyn, designed for the 
exhibition of paintings, and many more. 

The markets of the city were four in number — the 
Exchange Market at tlie foot of Broad street ; the 
Oswego Market in Broadway at the head of Maiden 
Lane ; the Old Fly Market, which in 1822 gave place to 
the jjresent Fulton Market ; and the Hudson or Bare, 
now Washington Market, between Fulton and Vesey 
streets. This curious appellation is thus accounted for 
by a contemporary of the times. After the great fire of 
1776 had destroyed the greater part of the houses in 
that j^art of the city, it was thought advisable to estab- 
lish a market there for the accommodation of the work- 
men who were building up the burned district. But the 
market-house was finished long before the streets about 
it were rebuilt and settled ; as there were few purchasers, 
the venders fell off, and thus in a very little time the 
strange anomaly was presented of a fine market-house 
bare of provisions. The present Washington Market- 
house was erected and opened in 1813. 

There were two ferries to Brooklyn, one from FI3' 
Market Slip near the foot of Maiden Lane, and the other 
from Catherine Slip ; one to Paulus Hook, now Jersej- 
City ; one to Elizabethtown Point ; and another to Staten 
Island. The ship-yards were between Catherine street 
and Corlaer's Hook and between Corlear's Hook and Stan- 
ton street, in the part of the town then called Manhattan 
Island, and regjirded as quite beyond the limits of the city. 



660 HISTORY OF THE 

The Fire Department consisted of a single engineer, 
who received his appointment from the Common Council 
and who was invested with absolute control over the 
companies, engines, and all else that pertained to the 
organization ; a number of fu'ewardens, commissioned by 
the same authority to inspect buildings, chimneys, etc., 
and to keep order at fires ; and several voluntary compa- 
nies under the direction of a foreman, assistant and clerk 
of their own choosing. A few engine-houses had been 
built ; the greater part of the hooks and ladders, 
buckets, etc., were deposited for safe keeping in the City- 
Hall. Several of these pioneer companies continued to 
retain their organization until the substitution of the 
paid for the volunteer Fire Department system was 
effected. 

The militia consisted of a single division under the 
command of Major-General Stevens. The United States 
Arsenal was at the junction of the Old and Middle 
Roads, now Madison Square, while the State Arsenal was 
situated at the junction of Franklin and Centre streets. 
In the rear of the Government House, near where 
formerly stood the lower barracks, was the old arsenal, 
yard, where a quantity of military stores was deposited, 
and to which, from time to time, curious relics made 
their way, well worth the attention of antiquarians. It 
was from the rubbish heaped up in this place that the 
mutilated statue of Pitt was unearthed after the Revo- 
lution. 

The manners and customs of the citizens, now sixty 
thousand in number, were still very primitive. The 
Dutch language continued to be used largely in the city; 



CITY OF X E (7 YORK. 661 

very many of the signs over the stores were in Dutch, 
and in Hudson Market, the resort of the farmers from 
New Jersey, a liuowledge of the hmguage was abso- 
lutely indispensable. The lower part of Pearl street was 
at this time the fashionable part of the town, though 
Barclay, Robinson and William streets were beginning 
to dispute its claims. Each citizen swept the street 
in front of his own house twice a week ; and the bell- 
man came around every day with his cart for garbage. 
The streets were lighted by oil lamps. Coal was almost 
unknown ; hickory wood was the principal article of 
fuel. The milkmen traversed the streets early in the 
morning, bearing a yoke on their shoulders, from which 
tin-cans were suspended, shouting: "Milk, ho!" in 
token of their coming ; and water from the celebrated 
Tea Water Pump on the corner of Chatham and Pearl 
streets, was carried about in carts, and retailed at a 
penny a gallon. The chimneys were swept by small negro 
boys, who went their rounds at daybreak, crying : 
" Sweep, ho ! sweep, ho ! from the bottom to the top, 
without a ladder or a rope, sweep, ho !" with numerous 
variations. 

Numerous quaint customs and street cries were in 
vogue at this comparatively modern time, all of which 
have now passed away, and are known to us only 
through tradition. A strange mosaic of different nations, 
with its successive strata of Dutch, English and French, 
New York was truly a composite city, gathering floating 
material from every nation under the sun wherewith to 
form and mold a new people, which should embrace 
tke whole universe within the scope of its sympathy, and 



662 CITY OF NEW YORK. 

vie with its adopted tongue in its broad and cosmo- 
politan character. Fit language, indeed, is the English 
for such a nation ; as yet a mass of crude material, 
gathered from the lexicons of every dialect that sprung 
from the confusion of tongues, to be molded by time, 
and use, and the master-hand of genius, into a sym- 
metrical form, perfect because all-comprehensive, and 
fitting to become a universal language — the only tongue 
that should be spoken by the people of a New World. 



CHAPTER XX. 



Progress of the City— War of 1S12— Politics of New York— The Canal Celebration. 

One of the first events that marked the mayoralty of 
Edward Livingston, was tlie construction of the Man- 
hattan Water-works, the forerunner of tlie magnifi- 
cent Croton Aqueduct and Reservoir of the present 
da}'. There had always been a scarcity of good water 
on the island. The spring of the celebrated Tea Water 
Pump in Chatham street was excellent, but this would 
not suffice for the wants of a whole city ; and the water 
of the other wells and pumps, which were scattered 
in profusion over the island, was almost unfit for use. 
The initiative step toward supplying the city with water 
bad been taken in 1774 by Christopher CoUes, who had 
constructed a reservoir at the public expense on the east 
side of Broadway, between Pearl and White streets,* into 
wlaich water was raised from large wells sunk on the 

* These grounds comprised about two acres, and were purchased by the corpora- 
tion of Augustus and Frederick Van Cortlandt, at the rate of six hundred pounds 
per acre. 



664 HISTORY OF THE 

premises and also from the Collect, then distributed by 
means of wooden pipes throughout the city. These 
works were completed in the spring of 1776, and placed 
under the superintendence of Mr. Colles ; but the 
supply proved insufficient, the water was of an inferior 
quality, and in the ensuing foreign occupation of the 
city, the enterj^rise was neglected, then finally aban- 
iloned, and the citizens returned to the wells of theu- 
ancestors, which still continued to be located in the 
middle of the streets. In 1798, the subject was again 
taken into consideration, and a report having been made 
by Dr. Bi'own, affirming the impurity of the water on 
the island, Engineer Weston was directed by the corpo- 
ration to investigate the matter, and report upon the 
most feasible method of bringing in water from the 
mainland. He recommended the raising of the Rye 
Ponds to a reservoir in Westchester County, the mills to 
be located on the Bronx River, where the suri^lus water 
would be used in raising the water, which would thence 
be carried to the Harlem River in an open canal, then 
conveyed across the river through an elevated iron pipe 
to a reservoir, where it would be filtered and then 
distributed through the city. After some discussion, the 
matter culminated in the formation of the Manhattan 
Water Company with banking privileges. This com- 
pany obtained a grant from the corporation of the 
grounds formerly occupied by Colles, and, erecting a 
reservoir in Chambers street, between Broadway and 
Centre street, a locality then considered far out of town, 
pumped water into it from wells sunk in the vicinity, 
whence it was distributed, by means of bored logs, 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



GG5 




CITY OP NEW YORK 



GG7 



through the city. But this water proved both scarce 
and bad ; the coniijany, neglecting the ostensible pur- 
pose of its organization, soon turned its attention almost 
exclusively to banking affairs, and thus lost the con- 
fidence of the community, and it was not long before the 
new works were voted a failure. 

A new City Hall was determined on about the same 
time, and in 1802, a premium was ofi'ered for the best 
plan, which was awarded to Messrs Macomb and Mangin. 




City Hull aaJ Paik. 



668 HISTORY OF THE 

On the 20th of September, 1803, the corner-stone of the 
new edifice was hxid in the Park by Mayor Livingston, 
in the presence of the corporation and the few of the 
citizens who had not fled from the yellow fever, which 
at this time was prevailing in the city. This edifice, 
which is too well known to our readers to require from 
us a detailed description, was finished in 1812, at a cost 
of half a million of dollars. The front and both ends 
were built of white marble from the quarries of Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts ; for the Chambers street front, 
red sandstone was used from motives of economy, it 
being thought that the material of this side was of little 
consequence, as so few citizens would ever reside on that 
side of the town. 

In 1803, Edward Livingston resigned his office, and 
De Witt Clinton was appointed mayor in his stead. 
Clinton was a native of the State of New York and a 
resident of the city from early youth, having been the 
first graduate of Columbia College after its change of 
name. Few of her sons have contributed more largely 
to the glory and prosperity of the city. Under his 
auspices, the Historical Society was founded, the Public 
School Society instituted, the Orphan As3dum estab- 
lished, the City Hall completed, and the city fortified for 
the war of 1812. He continued in the mayoralty with 
two years' intermission until 1815, when he resigned it 
to enter public Ufe on a more extended scale as governor 
of his native State, and to mature the gigantic scheme of 
canal-navigation, which won for New York the proud 
title of the Empire State, and for its projector the lasting 
remembrance of posterity. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 669 

The charter election of November, 1803, was warmly 
contested by the two opposing parties. Since the 
last election, two new wards had been added to the city, 
and this change gave the republicans strong hopes 
of success. The contest resulted in favor of the fede- 
ralists, who carried the First, Second, Third, Fourth, 
Eighth, and Ninth Wards, the two latter by a small 
majority, leaving the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh in the 
hands of the republicans. The result was accounted a 
gain by the latter, who now added the Fifth Ward to the 
Sixth and Seventh which they had carried uniformly 
since the election of 1800. This was the dawning of 
success ; in the election of the following year, some 
changes in the franchise regulations having opened the 
polls to a larger nmnber of voters, they succeeded in elect- 
ing their candidates in all the wards excepting the First 
and Second. In 1805, they carried the Second Ward, 
also, by a majority of two, and thus gained undisputed 
ascendency in the city government. The First Ward 
clung persistently to the fortunes of the federal party 
until 1820, when the repubhcans, for the first time, suc- 
ceeded in electing their candidate for alderman Tiy a small 
majority. 

The violent political disputes of this period gave rise 
to a fatal duel between two of the most prominent citi- 
zens of New York ; Alexander Hamilton, who, though 
born in the West Indies, had been a resident of the city 
from early youth, and his political antagonist, Aaron 
Burr, at this time the third Vice-President of the United 
States. The quarrel arose in political antagonism. In 
the State election of 1803, Burr, who had lost the con- 



670 HISTORY OF THE 

fidence of the republican party, had been nomhiated for 
governor by the federahsts, in opposition to Morgan 
Lewis, and, although the latter were at this time the 
leading party in the State, was defeated by his opponent 
by a large majority. This defection in the federal ranks 
he attributed to the influence of Hamilton, then the most 
prominent man in the party, who had denounced him in 
secret as an unprincipled politician and warmly opposed 
his election ; and, smarting under the influence of his 
defeat, he sent him a challenge, to which Hamilton demur- 
red at first, then afterward accepted. At sunrise on the 
11th of July, the parties met on a plateau on the Jersey 
shore, about half a mile above Weehawken. Hamilton 
was mortally wounded at the first fire, and fell, discharg- 
ing his pistol in the air. He was conveyed across the 
river to the house of Mrs. Bayard, over the site of which 
Horatio street now passes, where he breathed his last on 
the afternoon of the following day. The fatal result of 
this affair caused the deepest sorrow, not only in the city 
but throughout the whole country. Hamilton had been 
the bosom friend of Washington, his talents were of the 
highest order, he was a consummate statesman, and his 
moral character was without a stain. Few men stood 
higher than he in the esteem and confidence of the com- 
munity, and even those who had been his bitterest polit- 
ical opponents regarded his loss as the greatest evil that 
could happen to a community — the loss of a man of 
unblemished integrity from off its stage of action. His 
remains were escorted, on the 14th inst., by a large pre- 
cession to Trinity Church, where the funeral oration was 
pronounced by Gouverneur Morris, and the body interred 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



C71 






ik 



W ' fi r %Wl'*t. ivi 






"i 







.^^^r 



Iff 4^ ^"^iPJ 

-1 - -» ^ 4^ 



t 



</; 



■ill f- ^ * 





^ ? 

,3?-^ 
.*-<^* 






111 ^ri^i*!*^-!- f ^ " ^ 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 673 

with military honors in the cemetery of the church. A 
monument was afterward erected over his grave by the 
Society of the Cincinnati, of which lie was a member ; 
while the St. Andrew's Society, to which he also belonged 
— his father having been a Scotchman, an indispensable 
requisite to membership in this society — caused a mon- 
ument to be erected over the spot on which he fell. 

On the first of November, 1804, the foundation of 
the present Historical Society — a body to which, more 
than all others, the city of New York is indebted for the 
preservation of those documents and records which alone 
can preserve her true history to the world — was laid in 
the picture-room of the City Hall by eleven persons, who 
organized themselves into a society, and choosing DeWitt 
Clinton as the first president, pledged themselves to 
use their utmost efforts to collect whatever might relate 
to the natural, civil, literarj' and ecclesiastical history of 
the United States in general, and of the State of New 
York in particular. The foundation of this society was 
chiefly due to the instrumentality of Judge Egbert Ben- 
son and John Pintard, Esq. The association soon grew 
into favor, and its numbers increased slowly, but steadily. 
For some time, the meetings continued to be held in the 
City Hall, where the first historical festival of New York 
was held on the 4th of September, 1809, the two hun- 
dredth anniversary of the discovery by Hendrick Hudson 
of the island of Manhattan. In the same year, the 
society removed to rooms in the Government House, 
where it remained until the demolition of the building, 
in 1815 ; after which it located itself, first on the corner 
of Broadway and Chambers street, then in the Stuyve- 
43 



074 HISTORY OF 'iHE 

sant Institute, aud afterward in the New York Univer- 
sity, whence it removed for the last time in 1857 to the 
new library building on the corner of Second Avenue nnd 
Eleventh street, wliioh is fast becoming too small for its 
valuable and varied collection. 

The same year was marked by one of those terrible 
fires which were wont to ravage the city periodically 
before the introduction of lire-proof buildings, together 
with an efficient Fire Department. The conflagration 
broke out on the 18th of December in a grocery store 
in Front street, and raged with fury for several hours, 
burning the old CofTee House on the corner of Pearl 
and Wall street, the scene of so many patriotic gather- 
ings in the da3-s of the Revolution, with many other of 
the old landmarks of the city. Forty stores and dwell- 
ings were destroyed by this fire, which was supposed to 
have been the work of an incendiary. The loss of 
property was estimated at two millions of dollars. 

The following year witnessed the initiatory movement 
of a noble institution which, matured and perfected, is 
destined to be the crowing glory of our country — the 
Free School. The credit of this is due chiefly to some 
members of the Society of Friends, who, aided by the 
eObrts of De Witt Clinton, obtained the incorporation of 
the Public School Society, in 1805, with Clinton as 
its first president. The first school. No. 1, was opened 
on the 17th of May, 1806, in Madison near Pearl street, 
with forty scholars, the instruction being gratuitous to 
some and almost nominal to all. Not content with thus 
placing the means of education within the reach of every 
one, the society did more ; it employed persons to go 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



675 




St. Goorire's Chiircli 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



G77 




First Public School House. 



about the city and gather the destitute and untaught 
chikh-eu into the schools that they might receive tlie 
needed instruction. The experiment proved successful, 
and soon won the pubhc approval, at first withheld or 
cautiously bestowed on the innovation. In 1808, the cor- 
poration donated the old State Arsenal, on the corner of 
Chatham street and Tryou Row, to the society, on condi- 
tion that they should educate the children in the Alms 
House ; and, in ISll, School No. 2 was built in Henry 
street, on ground given by Colonel Rutgers. The pioneer 
school was afterwards removed to William street, where it 
long stood numerically at the head of our public schools. 
The society continued to flourish and rapidly to 
increase the number of its houses vuitil 1842, when a 
new school law was passed, providing for the establish- 
ment of Ward Schools, to be wliolly gratuitous and 
supported by taxation. The two systems continued to 
work together harmoniously under the supervision of 



678 HISTORY OF THE 

a Board of Education until 1853, when the Public School 
Society resolved to make over their property to the 
corporation, and to relinquish their charter, which was 
accordingly done. Fifteen of the trustees were admit- 
ted into the Board of Education for two years, the 
remaining eighty entered the local boards, and the ven- 
erable Public School Society passed out of existence. 
Yet its name will ever be honored by the friends of 
education as the efficient pioneer of public instruction. 
From the single school with its forty scholars have sprung 
up between two and three hundred schools, beside the 
Free Academy, now the New York College, estab- 
Hshed in 1847, for the purpose of placing a univer- 
sity education within the reach of every 3'outh of the 
city. 

Of a different nature but not less important was the 
event which marked the year succeeding the organiza- 
tion of the Pubhc School Society — a year which will 
ever be memorable in the annals of our city for the suc- 
cessful introduction of steam navigation. In 1798, 
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston had received from the 
Legislature, as the discoverer of this new power, the 
exclusive right of steam navigation in all the waters 
within the limits of the State for twenty years, provided 
that within twelve months, he should produce a boat, 
the average speed of which should not be less than four 
miles an hour. This he failed to do, and the grant 
remained in abeyance until 1803, when, having made the 
acquaintance of Robert Fulton in France, and aided him 
in some encouraging experiments, he obtained a renewal 
of the monopoly for the twenty years ensuing, on condi- 



CITY OF N E ■»' YORK, 



G7y 




CITY OF N E W Y R K 



681 




Portrait of Robert Fnlton. 

tion that he and Fulton, his partner in the grant, should 
fulfill the required conditions within the space of two j-ears. 
They innnediately set to work to realize their design. 
Fulton took up his residence in New York, and com- 
menced the construction of the Clermont, the first of the 
steam vessels. No one believed in tlie possibility of his 
success ; the citizens looked jeeringly at the craft, and 
christened it in derision, " The Fulton Folly." Nothing 
daunted by their taunts, the sanguine projector perse- 
vered in his task, and on the Tth of August, 1807, an- 
nounced his vessel as ready for tlie trial trip to Albany. 
The boat was launched from Jersey City. At the time 
appointed, thousands of spectators thronged the tem- 
porary staging that had been erected along the sloping 
shore, to witness the failure of the chimerical enterprise. 
As the wheels revolved, slowly at first, then increasing 
in velocity, and the vessel was propelled toward the 
middle of the river, the crv of " she moves, she moves !" 



GS2 11 I S T O R Y OF THE 










The Cltniiunt — Fultou's lirst Stuambuat. 

run through the unbc4ieving crowd ; while the sailors on 
the other vessels, on witnessing the strange craft as she 
came puffing and snorting up tlie stream, fell upon their 
knees, and prayed to he delivered from the evil one. 
Fulton eiijoj-ed his triumph as the speed increased, and the 
new power which he liad chained to his bidding, bore him, 
in defiance of wind and tide, far from the sight of the dis- 
comfited citizens. Stopping a single night at the seat 
of Chancellor Livingston, lie reached the place of his 
destination in thirty-two hours and secured the mouojjoly 
of steam navigation over the waters of New York. 

But Fulton had not been alone in the pursuit of this 
lucrative monopoly. John Stevens with his son, R. L. 
Stevens, of Iloboken, had long cherished the idea of 
availing themselves of the power of steam, and almost 
simultaneously with Fulton, but just too laic, liad 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 683 

effected their purpose in the steamer Phoenix. Antici- 
pated in the scheme by his successful rival, Mr. Stevens 
struck out into a new field, and, sending his steamer 
round to Philadelphia by sea, first won the mastery over 
the waters of the ocean as Pulton had done over those of 
the rivers. It was not long before the monopoly was 
set aside, and the Stevens again entered the lists of 
competition, producing an improved steamboat, capable 
of making thirteen and a half miles an hour, which con- 
vinced the doubters and persuaded them that the age of 
miracles was not yet past. 

One of the most important uses of this new power 
which had thus been forced into the service of mankind 
was in bridging the rivers which separated the city from 
the opposite shores. The ferries, especially those of 
Long Island, had alwa3^s borne an important part in the 
history of the city ; from their rent a great part of its 
revenue had been derived, and the proprietorship had 
been a constant source of dispute between the citizens 
and the residents at the opposite terminus. "We have 
noted the progress of the ferries from time to time, in 
the preceding pages, but we propose to give here a l)rief 
review of their history, the better to explain the bear- 
ings of the vexed ferry question. 

The first ferry was naturally established between New 
York and Brooklyn, its earliest neighbor. To avoid as 
much as jjossible the labor of stemming the strong ciu-- 
rent, the narrowest part of the river was chosen, though 
this was fiir above the furthest limits of the city, being 
from a point below Peck Slip on the New York to 
Fulton street on the Long Island side of the river. This 



(381 HISTORY OF THE 

Ferry — tlie Old Ferry, as it afterward came to be called — 
was maintained as a private speculation until about the 
middle of the seventeenth century, when a regular ferry 
was established, and made a source of revenue to the 
city. The first ferry-house in New York was on the cor- 
ner of Broad and Garden streets, now Exchange Place, 
a low, one story house, with two dormer windows in the 
high, steep pediment roof, built in conformity with the 
Knickerbocker style of architecture, and an iron boat, 
oars and anchor for a sign, the principal landing-jDlace of 
the ferry-boats, both from the Long Island and Jersey 
shores. The Brooklyn ferry-house at the foot of Fulton 
street was a commodious two story house, with stables 
and outhouses attached — for unlike the ferry-houses of 
the present day, these were also taverns for the accom- 
modation of travellers. This ferry-house was burned in 
1748 by the Sepoys of Long Island by way of revenge 
for the infringement on their rights by the corporation 
of New York. 

The dispute originated in this wise. As we have 
already said, the ferry was at first a private speculation, 
established in 1642 by Cornelius Dircksen, who kept a 
small inn near Peck Slip and owned a farm in the vicinity. 
William Jansen was his successor. 

In 1652, the Burgomasters of New Amsterdam made 
an unsuccessful application to Governor Stuyvesant for 
the ferry to Breukelen to defray the city expenses. In 
1654, an ordinance was passed, regulating the rates of 
ferriage, and in 1658, Harmanus Van Borsum hired the 
ferry from Governor Stuyvesant, at auction, at an 
iinnual rent of three hundred guilders, and became the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 685 

successor of his father Cornelius who had died a short 
time before. 

Upon the cession of the city to the English, the new 
rulers assumed control over the waters, and made th? 
ferry pay toll to the city government. Tlie people, how- 
ever, insisted on their right to ferry themselves and their 
neighbors across the river, provided that they did not 
interfere with the landing-places of the corporation, and 
so formidable became the opposition of these private 
ferries that the lessees of the government abandoned 
their enterprise in despair. John Airensen, John 
Euwatse and Dirck Benson successively tried the experi- 
ment and abandoned the lease, and the corporation 
became convinced that they must adopt some new policy 
or abandon all hope of revenue from the ferries. 
Hitherto they had been balked in their endeavors to 
crush these private enterprises from the fact that they 
could claim no jurisdiction over the neighboring shores ; 
but, in 1708, they obtained a charter from Lord 
Cornbury, which not only confirmed them in their title 
to the old ferry, but also invested them with a grant of 
all the land lying between high and low-water mark on 
the Long Island shore from the Wallabout to Red Hook, 
with the privilege of establishing additional ferries 
within these limits. The farmers along the shore were 
still permitted to ferry themselves and their produce 
across the river, but were strictly forbidden to carry any 
passengers. 

This charter incensed the Brooklynites greatly, and 
they did all in their power to evade its conditions. Urg- 
ino- that tlie instrument was worthless in the absence of 



()86 niSTOUY OF THE 

some technical formality, they continued their ferries 
and so harassed the corporation that in 1740 the latter 
obtained a more explicit renewal of their grant in the 
Moutgomerie charter, and also procured the passage of 
an act by the Provincial Assembl}', prohibiting private 
citizens from ferrying passengers across the river under 
penalty of a fine. After vainly endeavoring to obtain 
the repeal of this act, the peoi3le determined to have 
recourse to the law, and instituted a suit which was car- 
ried from court to court of the province, and finally 
referred by appeal to the king, when the vexed questions 
of the day were put to rest by the Revolution. Upon the 
restoration of tranqviillity, it was again revived, and has 
ever since furnished food for litigation, though the peo- 
ple have, as yet, been worsted in the contest. 

Until the year 1810, row-boats or pirogues were the 
only ferry-boats upon the rivers. Next came the horse- 
boats — twin-boats, with the wheel in the centre, pro- 
pelled Ijy a sort of horizontal ti'eadmill worked by horses, 
the first of which was introduced on the 3d of April, 
1814, upon the Catherine street ferry. This was a boat 
of eight-horse power, crossing the river in from twelve 
to twenty minutes. The first improvement was made in 
the substitution of steam for horses as the motive power, 
and the first steamboat, the Nassau, was put on the Ful- 
ton ferry on the 8th of May in the same year ; but the 
new agent being found as expensive as expeditious, 
it failed to find favor in the ej'es of the Company, and, 
for many years, this remained the only steam ferry-boat 
upon the river. In 1824, the monopoly which had been 
granted to Fulton and Livingston was set aside by order 



CITY OF \EW YORK. 687 

of the Supreme Court, the use of steaia was thrown opeu 
to public competition, and the horse-buats soon became 
obsolete institutions. 

The first improvement in the steam ferry-boats was 
the single boat with side-wheels ; the first of which was 
the Hoboken, built by R. L. Stevens in 1822. Simul- 
taneously with these came the floating bridges which rise 
and fall with the tide, aided by counterbalancing weights 
on the shore — the invention of Fulton — and the spring 
piles, constructed by R. L. Stevens. These improvements 
soon found favor on the ferries, the plan of bridging the 
river by an arch was abandoned, in the face of this new 
agent, which set time and space at defiance, and the 
genius of steam gained undisputed dominion over the 
waters. 

In the charter election of 1806, the federalists suc- 
ceeded in regaining the ascendency iu the city, of which 
they had been deprived, and carried the First, Second, 
Third and Fourth Wards, together with the Fifth 
through an independent candidate to whom they had 
given their support. De Witt Clinton was in conse- 
qence removed from the maj^oralty by the Council of 
Appointment at Albany, and the veteran Marinus Wil- 
!ett was appointed in his stead ; while the recorder, 
Pierre C. Van Wyck, was superseded in his office by 
Maturin Livingston. Disaffection was now springing up 
in the republican ranks. The scope of our work does 
not permit us to trace the rise and progress of the 
numerous political parties that sprung suddenly into 
existence from time to time, and as suddenly vanished ; 
it will suffice to say that, at this time, a deadly feud 



G88 HISTORY OF THE 

existed between the Clintons and the Livingstons, that 
Governor Lewis, who was rehi-ted to the latter, threw 
his influence in their favor, that the section of the repub- 
lican party which still clung to Burr made common 
cause with these, and that with these cliques was allied 
that of the Madisonian republicans, who supported Madi- 
son for president in opposition to George CUnton, the 
ex-governor of the State. 

In the following year, the Clintonians regained the 
ascendency, De Witt Clinton was again appointed 
mayor, and Pierre C. Yan Wyck was restored to the 
recordership. In the charter election, the First, Second 
and Ninth Wards alone were carried by the federalists. 
These were increased in the election of 1808, by the 
addition of the Third and Sixth wards, making an 
equal division of power. Dui'ing this year the Tenth 
Ward was added to the cit}'. 

At the State election of 1809, the federalists for the 
first time since 1799, carried the State, upon which the 
appointment of the mayor depended.* This change was 
owing to the declaration of war which was now pending, 
and against which there was strong ojDposition. At the 
charter elections, the regnant party achieved a similar 
success, electing their candidates for aldermen in all the 
wards except the Fifth and Tenth, and gaining fifteen 
out of twenty of the whole common council. At the 
first meeting of the Council of Appointment at Albany, 
De Witt Clinton was again removed from the mayoralty, 

• The mayor was at this time appointed to o(fice by a Council of Appointment, 
consisting of a senator chosen by the Legislature from each of the four districts of 
the State, with the governor as cliairraan of the counciL 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 6S9 

and Jacob Radcliff appointed in his stead ; wliile Pierre 
C. Van Wyck was again removed from the recordership 
to make room for Josiah Ogden Hoffman. In the fol- 
lowing year, the latter was restored to the office, then 
removed for the third time in 1813, and Hoffman again 
appointed in his place. 

In the charter election of 1810, the republicans gained 
a majority in the Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Tenth wards. 
This success was followed up by a victory in the State 
election, which restored De Witt Clinton to the mayor- 
alty, in which he continued until 1815. During this 
time, the politics of the city were fluctuating. The 
charter election of 1811 made no change in the Board 
The election of 1812 gained to the federalists the assist- 
ant alderman of the Tenth Ward, and in 1813, the 
republicans gained the Sixth Ward, thus securing an 
equal division of power. This was recovered by the 
federalists in the following year ; when the great issue 
upon which the parties had been divided was ended by 
the termination of the war. 

From this brief sketch of the political affairs of the 
city during the beginning of the centur}^ we will return 
to its local changes and improvements. In 1807, a new 
missionary enterprise was undertaken by Trinity Church 
by the erection of St. John's Chapel in Varick street, 
on what was then deemed the outskirts of civilization. 
This was located opposite a dreary marsh, covered with 
brambles and bulrushes and tenanted by frogs and 
watersnakes, and was regarded by the citizens at large 
almost as a proof of insanity on the part of the church 
authorities. 

44 



690 HISTORY OF THE 

A curious fact discovered on the records of a Lutheran 
church of New York by one of the antiquarians to 
whom the cit}'- is so deeply indebted for preserving its 
traditions of the past, will serve to illustrate the popular 
faith at this period in the rise and progress of real estate 
in the upper part of the town. The church was at this 
time involved in pecuniary difificulties, contributions were 
solicited in its aid, and, to relieve it in its embarrassment, 
a friend proposed to donate to it a tract of six acres of 
ground in the neighborhood of the stone bridge on the 
corner of Broadway and Canal street ; but, after mature 
•leliberation, the trustees refused the gift, alleging that 
the land in question was not worth the trouble of 
fencing in. 

The commencement of the United States Navy Yard 
at Brooklyn in the beginning of tlie century called the 
attention of the citizens to an act of duty which had too 
long been delayed. The first stroke of the spade into 
the sand-hill upon which the new buildings were to be 
erected opened a terrible mine to the eyes of the public. 
The whole shore, the slope of the hill, the sand island in 
the vicinity — all were filled with the bones of the prison- 
ship martyrs, who had been thrust coffinless into the 
ground and literally piled one upon another. The hor- 
rible revelation reminded the citizens of the too-long 
neglected duty ; the relics were carefully collected and 
placed in the charge of the Tammany Society, and, on 
the 8th of May, 1808, escorted by one of the grandest 
processions that New York had ever witnessed, were 
conveyed to their final resting-place in a vault in Jack- 
son street, not far from the spot of their original inter- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 691 

ment. Thirteen coffins filled with the bones were carried 
in the procession, and eighteen hogsheads besides were 
gathered from the sands and deposited in the vault. 
The corporation attended in a body, the bells were tolled 
and minute guns fired during the procession, and the 
whole city seemed clad in mourning. 

In 1811, the city was again devastated by a terrible 
conflagration, which raged witli fury for several hours, 
destroying nearly a hundred houses, and baffling for a 
long time all the efforts of the firemen. The steeple of 
the Brick Church and the cupola of the New Jail took 
fire and were barely saved, the one by the prompt action 
of a sailor by the name of Stephen McCormick, the other 
by the presence of mind of a prisoner on the premises. 
Both were afterward rewarded by the corporation. 

One of the most important events of tliis period was 
the adoption of a plan of the future city, to which we 
owe the parallel streets and broad avenues of the upper 
part of the island, which contrast so strongly with the 
narrow streets and crooked lanes of the down-town 
locality. This plan was due to Simeon Dewitt, Gouver- 
neur Morris, John Rutherford and S. Guel, who had 
been appointed by the Legislature in 1801, as commis- 
sioners to lay out and survey the whole island to Kings- 
bridge into streets and avenues. By the proposed plan, 
the streets, beginning with the first on the east side of 
the Bowery -above Houston street, numbered upward 
to the extreme end of the island. These were inter- 
sected by twelve avenues, numbering westward from 
First Avenue, the continuation of Allen street, to 
Twelfth Avenue upon the shores of the North River. 



G92 HISTORY OF THE 

As avenues were afterward laid out to the eastward of 
the former, they were designated by the names of the 
letters of the alphabet, A, B, C and D. By this plan, 
the island was laid out with admirable regularity, while 
the squares and triangles which were formed by the 
junction of those time-honored thoroughfares which 
could not be removed, were converted into public parks 
for the adornment of the city. The despised Potter's 
Field became the beautiful Washington Square ; the 
Bowery and Broadway met amicably in Union Square ; 
Madison Square was formed from the union of the Old 
and the Middle roads ; the great salt meadow on the 
eastern side of the city was drained, and Tompkins 
Square, with hundreds of city lots, sprung up from its 
depths ; valleys were filled up, hills were levelled, and 
art seemed destined to surmount all the difficulties of 
nature,- and to make every inch of New York Island 
inhabitable ground. 

During the occurrence of these events, the progress of 
the city had been greatly retarded by the threatening 
aspect of affairs with England. Despite the provisions 
of the treaty of 1795, the English had not ceased their 
aggressions upon American commerce. In the war 
that existed between England and Prance, the hostile 
powers blockaded each other's ports, and captured all 
American vessels that attempted to enter, despite the 
neutrality which was strictly maintained by the nation. 
Nor was this all ; the British cruisers, on the motto, 
" Once an Englishman, always an Englishman," per- 
sisted in boarding and searching American vessels, and 
taking thence all naturalized citizens as subjects of the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. Q9o 

British crown. These constantly recurring grievances 
irritated the people, and fast prepared them for an open 
rupture. 

As early as 1806, an affair of this kind occurred 
almost within the port of New York, which excited uni- 
vei-sal indignation. In April, the British frigate Lean- 
der, commanded by Captain Whitby, while cruising ofif 
Sandy Hook, fired into the sloop Richard, an American 
coasting vessel, and killed one of her men. The corpse 
was brought up to the city and buried at the public 
expense; and the citizens joined in demanding reparation 
of the British government for the unprovoked outrage ; 
but, though Captain Whitby was sent home to England 
and tried by a court-martial, he was speedily acquitted 
without punishment or censure. 

On the 22d of June of the following year, the Ameri- 
can frigate Chesapeake, when off the coast of Virginia, 
was fired upon by the British man-of-war Leopard, and 
forced to surrender four of her men, who were claimed 
as subjects to the crown of Great Britain ; three of whom 
were afterwards proved to be American citizens who 
had been impressed by the British but had escaped from 
their service. This outrage was followed by a proclama- 
tion from President Jefferson, forbidding British armed 
vessels to enter the harbors of the United States until 
reparation for the attack upon the Chesapeake had been 
made by the British government, and security given 
- against future aggressions. 

War was now raging between England and France, 
and, in November of the same year, the British govern- 
ment issued " orders in council," prohibiting all trade 



694 



HISTORY OF THE 




CliurcU ui" the Ascension, comer of Fifth Av 



anJ Teuth Street. 



with France and her alUes. By way of retaliation, in 
the following month, Bonaparte issued the celebrated 
Milan decree, forbidding all trade with England and 
her colonies, and thus struck the death-blow to American 
commerce. 

It now became evident to all that war was inevitable ; 
and, in order to call home and detain the American 
ships and sailors, and to put the country in a posture of 
defence, on the 23d of September, 1807, an embargo 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 695 

was laid by Congress on all the vessels in the harbors of 
the United States. The result was most disastrous . 
business was instantly paralyzed, failures occurred ou 
every side, and the whole country seemed in a state of 
stagnation. This measure revived the disputes between 
the federalists and the republicans ; the latter sustain- 
ing the action of the administration, the former insisting 
that, if war were made at all, it should be against Franco 
as the principal aggressor. 

On the 1st of March, 1809, the embargo which, while 
failing to obtain from France and England the desired 
acknowledgment of American rights, was ruinous to the 
commerce of the country with other nations, ^s'ai- 
repealed by Congress, and a strict system of ion- 
intercourse substituted in its stead. Relying o' the 
promise of Mr. Erskine, the British minister, th.^■. the 
obnoxious "orders in council" should be r^-pealed 
before the 10th of June, President Madison, lately 
elected to the office, proclaimed that commer.v'al inter- 
course with England should be renewed on that day. 
The promise, however, was not kept, the ^Movernment 
disavowed the pledge of the minister, and on the 19 th 
of August, non-intercourse with England was again 
proclaimed. 

In March, 1810, the hostile decrees of the French 
were revoked, and commercial intercourse was renewed 
with the nation. The Englisli, meanwhile, continued 
their aggressions, stationing ships of war before the 
American ports, to intercept the outward-bound vessels 
and take possession of them as lawful prizes. Scarce an 
American vessel was safe on the seas, and, finding that 



096 HISTORY OF THE 

no satisfaction was to be obtained from the British 
government, Congress resolved at length to bring mat- 
ters to a crisis, and on the 4th of Ajn'il, 1812, laid an 
embargo upon all vessels within the jurisdiction of the 
United States, which was followed on the 19th of the 
ensuing month by the President's proclamation of war 
against Great Britain. 

Although the citizens had differed greatly in opinion 
in respect to the expediency of the projected war, no 
sooner had it been declared, than they pledged them- 
selves heart and hand to aid in its accomplishment. 
The news reached the city on the 20th of June, and on 
the 24th, the citizens assembled in large numbers in the 
Park to concert measures for future action. 

The meeting was called to order at 12 o'clock, noon, 
with Col. Henry Rutgers as president and Col. Marinus 
Willett as secretary. The law of Congress declaring 
war and the President's proclamation were read, and a 
preamble and resolutions, apjjroving the action of the 
government, and pledging to its support " their lives, their 
fortunes and their sacred honor," were unanimously 
adopted by the Assembly.* Copies of these resolutions 

* These resolutions we transcribe entire — the preamble from which they are 
deduced is too long to be inserted here. 

" Resolved, That we have viewed with pleasure and approbation the increasing 
" efforts of our government to preserve to our country the blessings of peace ; that 
" we duly appreciate their able negotiations, and admire their unwearied patience to 
" promote so important an end ; and that we consider them standing justified in the 
" eyes of their fellow-citizens in all the restrictive measures to which they have 
" resorted, as temporary expedients, with the hope of preventing thereby the evib 
" of war. 

" Resolved, That while sohcitous of peace, and ardently attached to its blessings, 
'• we believe that the crisis had arrived when it could be no longer with honor 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 697 

were ordered to be forwarded to the President, to 
Congress, and to the press for jjublication, and the 
people dispersed,, fully determined to make their words 
good whenever thej^ should be called upon to redeem 
their pledges. So vigorously were they backed by 
individual enterprise that, within four months after the 
declaration of war, twenty-six privateers were fitted out 
from the port, carrying two hundred and twelve guns 
and twenty-two thousand and thirty-nine men. 

The city, in the meantime, was ill prepared for 
defence, although, taking warning by the indications of 
the gathering storm, the government had for some time 
past been busy with its fortification. In the beginning 
of 1807, the city was entirely defenceless. The Narrows 
and the Sound were open and undefended, not a fortifi- 
cation was to be seen in the harbor or on any of the 
islands, and a small force might have sailed up to the 
city without opposition, and captured it as did Nicolls in 
the days of Stuyvesant. Awakened to a sense of the 
impending danger, in the spring of 1807, the general 
government began to take measures to fortify the liarbor 
of New York ; but the work went on slowly, and it was 

" retained ; that we therefore hold our government justified in its appeal to arms 
" against Great Britain, and yield to its decision our unqualified and decided appro- 
" bation. 

" Resolved, That as our government has now appealed to the sword, it becomes 
" the duty of all good citizens, at such an eventful period, to lay aside all party 
" animosity and private bickering, to rally as becomes brethren, equally involved in 
" the welfare of their common country, around the national standard, and to yield 
" to their government an undivided support. 

" Resolved, That in placing our reliance in the Most High, and soliciting his 
" benediction on our just cause, we pledge to our government, in support of our 
" beloved country, ' our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.' " 



698 HISTORY OF THE 

not until the war had been prosecuted for two years, and 
the city was threatened with invasioii by a British fleet, 
that the citizens took the work into their own hands, 
and succeeded in rendering the defences available. 

In the spring of 1814, the blockade of the southern 
ports, which had been maintained by the British since 
the beginning of the war, was extended along the entire 
coast, and the Common Council, alarmed by this hostile 
demonstration, issued a public call, urging the citizens to 
come together and concert measures for the defence of 
the city. In pursuance of this call, the people assembled 
in the Park in front of the City Hall on the 11th of 
August, 1814, to redeem the pledges of the former 
meeting. Colonel Heni-y Rutgers was again chosen 
chairman, and Oliver Wolcott secretary ; and Drs. 
Mitchell and McNeven, with Messrs. Wolcott, Riker, 
Anthony, Bleecker and Sampson, were appointed as a 
committee to draft resolutions to be presented to the 
meeting ; pending which, the veteran Willett addressed 
the audience in a stirring speech, reviewing the events 
of their first struggle for independence, and urging them 
not to falter, but to support their leaders to the 
end. His speech was received with shouts of en- 
thusiasm. In a short time, Richard Riker presented 
a preamble and resolutions in behalf of the com- 
mittee, declaring their resolve to unite in arms on the 
first approach of the enemy, and to defend the city to 
the last extremity, and urging all the citizens to enroll 
in the militia and the naval service, to assist in the 
public works, and, by ever}^ means in their power, to 
aid the authorities in their efforts to secure the public 



CITY OF NEW YORK. b&.-i 

safety/^ These resolutions were passed unanimously, 
committees were appointed to confer on the proper mea- 
sures to be adopted, and to correspond with the citizens 
of other States for tlie purpose of inviting them to form 
voluntary associations similar to those proposed in the 
city, and the meeting adjourned amid shouts of applause. 

* These resolutions read as follows : 

" Kesolred, That the citizens here assembled, will, to the last extremity, defend 
" their city. 

" Resolved, That we will unite ourselves in arms with our brethren of the country, 
" and on the first approach of the enemy, make it a common cabse. 

"Resolved, That humbly confiding in the favor of the Assembly, we hope to 
" prove ourselves not unworthy of that freedom won by the heroes of the Revo- 
" lution ; and trust that the enemy they vanquished will receive from us a similar 
" defeat. 

" Resoleed, That we highly approve of the measures for public defence which 
" have been devised by the government of the United States, by his excellency the 
« governor of the State, and by the corporation of this city ; and that we will 
" cooperate in carrying the same into effectu.al execution. 

^^ Resolved, That it be recommended to the citizens generally, to meet, as soon as 
" may be practicable with convenience, in their respective wards, for the purpose of 
"electing discreet and efficient committees to promote the execution of the foUow- 
" ing objects : 

"1. To complete the voluntary enrollments of persons exempted by law from 
" military service 

" 2. To encourage the enrollment of seafaring citizens for service in the harbor, 
" or as artillerists ; and 

" 3. The enrollment of citizens for voluntary labor on the public works. 
" Resolved, That it be the special duties of the ward committees to provide, 
" under the direction of the corporation of the city, for the relief and protection of 
" the families of such persons as may be absent on public duty, and also, to 
'• provide in the best manner practicable, for the protection of such helpless per- 
" sons and their property, as in case of alarm may be desirous of moving into the 
" country. 

" Resolved, That we will endeavor to promote concord, and will discountenance 
" all attempts to weaken the patriotic efforts of good citizens. 

" Resolved, That we will endeavor to discover and subject to the animadversion 
" of the laws, all persons who shall be concerned in any illicit commerce or 
" improper intercourse with the enemy." 



700 HISTORY OF THE 

The citizens were not slow in redeeming their pledges 
Men of all classes and vocations lent a helping hand ; 
masons, carpenters, shoemakers, merchants, and incorpo- 
rated societies, all turned out in distinct bodies to aid in 
digging and constructing the works, and so numerous did 
the offers of aid become that the corporation was often 
obliged to entreat the friendly societies to wait from day 
to day for want of room. The whole city wore a martial 
aspect, mihtia companies were organizing and drilling 
here and ihere. the citizens hurried to and fro with pick 
and shovel to labor upon the fortifications, and every- 
thing bespoke the spirit of determined resistance. 
With this efficient aid, the works were soon completed. 
Castle Clinton, better known as Castle Garden, was con- 
structed on the southwest point of the island, the North 
Batter}' was built at the foot of Hubert street, and Fort 
Gansevoort was erected at the foot of Gansevoort street. 
On Governor's Island, about half a mile south of the 
city, was Fort Columbus, with the strong Fort WilHam in 
close proximity. About a mile to the westward of this, 
on Bedlow's Island, was a strongly built star-fort, and on 
Ellis Island, about a mile southwest from Castle Clinton, 
wa.s a circular battery. On Staten Island, eight miles 
below the city, at the narrowest point of the passage 
between Long and Staten Island, stood Fort Richmond, 
a strongly built stone fortress, well supplied with all the 
munitions of war, with Fort Tompkins on an eminence 
directly in the rear, and Fort Hudson a little way below 
on the shore. In the Upper Bay, about two hundred 
yards from Long Island was Fort Diamond, afterward 
Fort Lafayette, the strongest fortress of any, built on 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 701 

made ground on a shoal, which could only be seen at 
low water. These fortifications, which in case of need 
could mount five hundred cannon, amply defended the 
harbor, and precluded the possibility of a successful 
invasion. 

Nor were the fortifications at Hellgate and on the 
upper part of the island, less effective. On Hallet's 
Point stood Fort' Stevens, with a stone tower in the rear; 
the Opposite shore was strongly defended by the fortifica- 
tions at Benson's Point ; and strong works were erected 
to protect McGowan's Pass on the road to Harlem and 
the Manhattanville Pass on the Bloomingdale road, be- 
tween which a line of block-houses was thrown up. 

Early in the month of August, a requisition was 
made by Congress for twenty thousand troops, to 
be stationed in and around New York, and the cor- 
poration raised the necessary funds to meet the expense 
under pledge of reimbursement by the general govern- 
ment. Volunteers speedily flocked in from the 
surrounding country, and, on the 1st of September, all 
the artillery and infantry in the city and county were 
consolidated and mustered into the United States service, 
under their own officers, subject to the same rules and 
regulations and receiving the same pay and rations 
as the regular troops. Daniel D. Tompkins, at this time 
governor of the State, and Major-General Morgan Lewis, 
were the commanders at the post. The whole detached 
division was placed under the command of Major-Gene- 
ral Ebenezer Stevens. Commodore Decatur was 
stationed in the city with a small force of picked men 
to be ready for action by sea or land, and a strong fleet 



702 HISTORY OF THE 

lay in waiting in the harbor. The active duty required 
was performed in turn by the companies with their 
officers. Each company had its parade-ground, where 
the men who quartered at home were drilled for three 
or four hours every morning and afternoon. The bat- 
talions formed twice each week, the regiments once 
a week, and the brigade once in two or three weeks, 
while the whole division under General Stevens had 
three or four parades during their three months' service. 
During this time, the different regiments encamped in 
turn at Harlem, and guarded the fortifications there 
until relieved by a new corps from the city. 

When, at the close of the campaign of 1814, the 
division was reviewed by Governor Tompkins, it was 
found to consist of more than twenty-three thousand 
men, of whom but five hundred were regulars, while the 
rest were volunteers. The regular army w'as on the 
northern and western frontier, repelling the attacks of 
the British and Indians, and New York had none but 
her own sons to depend upon for safety. Happily, their 
protection was not needed. The battle of New Orleans 
virtually closed the war. On the 24th of December, 
1814, a treaty of peace had been concluded at Ghent, and 
signed by the commissioners of both nations. Strangely 
enough, no mention was made in this treaty of the 
causes which had led to the war — the encroachments 
upon American commerce and the right of search and 
impressment, but the former had ceased with the conclu- 
sion of the war with France, while Great Britain had 
quietly abandoned the practice of the latter. 

The federalists liavins; now the ascendency in the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 703 

State, in March, 1815, De Witt Clinton was removed 
from the mayoralty and John Ferguson api^ointed in 
his stead. Ferguson was at this time the naval officer 
of the customs. Being incapacitated by law from hold- 
ing both offices, he resigned the new appointment in the 
ensuing June, and Jacob Radelifl", who had already acted 
as mayor in the last interregnum of Clinton's civic 
administration, was appointed in his stead, while John 
Ogden Hoffman was at the same time superseded in the 
recordership by Eichard Riker. In the same year, the 
time of the charter elections was changed from Novem- 
ber to April. The election of this year was warmly 
contested, and resulted in favor of the federalists, who 
carried six wards as in the previous election. 

In the charter election of 181G, the republicans 
for the first time adopted the name of Democrats, an 
appellation which was for some time confined only to 
the party in the city. In this election, they achieved 
a signal triumph, carrying six wards out of the ten and 
effectually routing the opposite party. This result was 
repeated in the election of 1817. 

From this time, the ancient federahst party steadily 
declined, while new factions rose from its ruins, and allied 
themselves with off-shoots from the republican party. The 
issues that gave rise to these divisions are too compli- 
cated for any but a political history of the times ; leav- 
ing all details of this nature, therefore, to those to whom 
it properly belongs, we shall briefly make mention of 
the questions of the day, and outline the career of the 
rival parties. 

At this time, the republican party was divided into the 



704 HISTORY OF THE 

two great divisions of Madisonians and Clintonians. To 
the former belonged the greater part of the Tammany 
party, famiUarly known as "bucktails," from the deer's 
tail worn as an emblem in their caps by one of the orders 
of the society — an appellation by which the whole sec- 
tion of the party opposed to Clinton afterward came to 
be known. Of this party, Martin Van Buren became 
the most j^rominent leader.* 

The state election of 1818 placed De Witt Clinton in 
the governmental chair by the unanimous vote of all 
the parties in the field. In the charter election, there 
was less unanimity. The First, Second, and Third wards 
were won by the federalists without opposition, the 
Clintonians carried the Fourth Ward by a small majority, 
and the remaining six wards were won by the bucktail 
party. The republicans being again in the ascendency 
in the State, RadclifF was removed from the mayoralty, 
and Cadwallader D. Colden, grandson of the former 
lieutenant-governor of that name, of the Clintonian 
section, was appointed in his stead, Governor Clinton 
giving the casting vote necessary to secure his election 
in the Council of Appointment. In the following year, 
Richard Riker was removed from the office of Recorder, 
and Peter A. Jay appointed in his stead. 

The charter election was won by large majorities by 
the bucktails ; the federalists carrying only the First and 



■* The section of the republican party opposed to De Witt Clinton originatea i%» 
early as 1806 in the "Martllng men," who tool; their name from their place of meet- 
ing at Martling's Long Room, on the site of the Tract House. Tammany Hall, which 
was built in 1811, afterward became the rendezvous of the Madisonians, whence the 
section derived the name of the Tammany party. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 705 

Second wards entire and electing the alderman of the 
Third. 

The charter election of 1820 resulted in a still more 
decided victory to the bucktails, who carried all the 
wards iu the city, the Second alone excepted, for the 
first time electing an alderman in the First Ward. The 
State elections of the fall for the members of the Legis- 
lature resulted also in their favor, and, having thus suc- 
ceeded in gaining a majority in the Council of Appoint- 
ment, they i-emoved Golden from the mayoralty to make 
room for Stephen Allen, and restored the recordership 
to their favorite, Richard Riker. 

At the municipal election of 1821, the bucktails, now 
known as the republicans, a name to which both they 
and the Chntouians laid claim, succeeded in electing their 
candidates in aU except the First and Second wards. 
Their success iu the following election was still more 
decisive ; and their candidates were elected in every 
ward without opposition or by large majorities. 

In the charter election held in November, 1823, a 
new division arose in the politics of the city. The 
ancient federalists were well-nigh extinct ; and the chief 
point at issue was the nomination of a successor to 
James Monroe, now on the eve of quitting the presi- 
dency. William H. Crawford, Henry Clay, Andrew 
Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and John C. Calhoun 
were presented by their respective cliques as candidates 
for the nomination ; and this competition excited new 
party differences. Another question that arose at this 
time was in respect to the appointment of electors ; a 

portion of the people advocating the existing system bji 
45 



706 HISTORY OF TUE 

which they were appointed by the Legislature ; and 
others urging that this law should be repealed and the 
choice of the electors submitted directly to the people. 
The bucktail party, styled by its antagonists the 
" Albany Regency," which supported Crawford, avowed 
itself in favor of the existing system, while the friends 
of the other candidates, fusing on the point at issue 
under the name of the " people's party," united in 
urging the repeal of the law. The charter election was 
closely contested, and resulted in the election of five 
aldermen and six assistants on the people's ticket, 
thus giving to the party a majority. In the course of 
the year, the power of appointment of the maj'or was 
transferred from the Council of Appointment at Albany, 
to the city corporation, who soon after superseded 
Stephen Allen in the mayoralty by the appointment of 
William Paulding, the former competitor of Golden. 
Richard Riker was also removed from the recordership 
to make room for Samuel Jones ; then restored to the 
office in the following year. 

In the elections of the two following years, the poli- 
tics of the city were strangely complicated. New 
factions sprung into existence, and independent candi- 
dates were put in nomination. The peojjle's party 
retained its ascendency in the election of 1824 ; in the 
following year the republicans regained their power, 
electing their candidates in a majority of the wards. 
Since the last election the Eleventh and Twelfth Wards 
had been added to the city. In the course of the year, 
William Paulding was removed from the mayoralty, and 
Philip Hone, a native-born citizen and a federalist of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



707 





M ^ii 



St. Paul's CLapel. 



CITT OF NEW YORK. 700 

the old school, appointed in his stead ; not from any 
influence of his party in the council, but in consequence 
of a quarrel between the friends of Paulding and Wil- 
liam P. Yan Ness, the candidates of the rival democratic 
factions. 

Having thus glanced briefly at the political fluctuations 
of the city during the first quarter of the century, we will 
resume the narration of the events of general interest 
which transpired subsequently to the termination of the 
war of 1812. This war left the country in an impover- 
ished condition, but commerce soon began rapidly to 
revive ; so rapidly, indeed, that the unnatural growth 
brought on a commercial crisis in 1818-19, which oc- 
casioned many failures and much suffering. 

In 1817, the first regular line of packet ships to Liv- 
erpool — the "Black Ball Line" — was established by 
Isaac Wright and Sou, Francis Thompson, Benjamin 
Marshall, and Jeremiah Thompson. This line consisted 
of four ships from four to five hundred tons — the Pacific, 
Amity, William Thompson, and James Cropper, which 
sailed regularly on the first day of every month. The 
" Red Star Line " was next established by Byrnes, 
Trimble, & Co., with four ships, the Manhattan, Hercules, 
Panthea, and Meteor. These sailed on the 24th of each 
month. About six months after, the proprietors of the 
" Black Ball Line " added four more ships to their line 
to sail on the 16th of each month, which were soon 
after followed by the establishment of the " Swallow 
Tf il Line " by Messrs. Fish, Grinnel & Co., and Thad- 
deus Phelps & Co., consisting of four ships, to sail on 
the 8th of each month, thus making a fleet of sixteen 



ilfl HISTORY OF THE 

packets, with a weekly departure. This was a desidera 
turn which the citizens had had avi opportunity to learn 
to ajjpreciate ; as, previously to this, the departures of the 
Eiu-opean packets had been verj- irregular and had occa- 
sioned much inconvenience to merchants and travellers. 

On the 8tli of July, 1818, the remains of Gen. 
Richard Montgomery, the hero of Quebec, were trans- 
ferred from their Canadian resting-place to the city, and 
deposited with military honors beneath the mural tomb 
in the front of St. Paul's Chapel, which had been erected 
to his memor}^ in 1776 by order of the Continental 
Congress. Montgomery, though of Irish parentage, was 
allied to many of the prominent families of the city, 
through his marriage with the sister of Chancellor Liv- 
ingston, and this transfer of his remains occasioned a 
lively interest among the people. 

In 1819, the first Savings Bank — the institution now 
located in Bleeckcr street- — was organized under the 
auspices of Thomas Eddy, Dr. John Griscom, John 
Pintard, and other well-known citizens, and opened in 
the basement of the New York Institution, once the 
Alms House, in Chambers street, with William Bayard 
as its first president. 

The charter of the United States Bank, gi-anted in 
1791 through the efforts of Hamilton, had expired in 
1811 by its own limitation, and, after endeavoring in vain 
to procure its renewal, the friends of the banking system, 
in 1812, applied to the Now York Legislature for a 
charter for a proposed " Bank of America," in the city 
of New York, with a capital of six millions, five millions 
to be subscribed at their option by the stockholders of 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



■11 




Tomb of Montgomerj-, in the front wall of St. Paul's Chapel. — {For Inscription, see p. 712.) 



7 12 HISTORYOFTHf, 



Tliis Monument is erected by the order of Congress, 
25th Jan''', 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remem- 
brance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprize & perseverance 
of Major General Richard Montgomery, 
Who after a series of successes amidst the most discou 
raging difficulties Fell in the attack on 
Quebec, 31" Dec''. 1775, Aged 37 years. 



Jnveait et sculpsit, Parisiis J. J. Caffieri, Sculptor Regius, Anno Domini cbbcdtxvii 



THE STATE OF NEW YORK 

Caused the Remains of 

JMUVJOR. GEIN^L. riICILA.Rr> MO^TTGJ-OlNrKRY, 

To be conveyed from Quebec 

And deposited beneath this MonuiEent, 

the 8th day of July, 

1818. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 713 

the deceased United States Bank. This measure, which 
was warmly supported by the federahsts as well asi by a 
section of the republican party, was as zealously opposed 
by Governor Tompkins, who, finding the bill likely to 
pass both houses, prorogued the Legislature for sixty 
days, in the hope, by gaining time, to secure its defeat. 
But this delay availed him nothing ; the Legislature, on 
reassembling, made it its first business to incorporate 
the bank, the capital of which was subsequently reduced 
to four millions. The City Bank, with a capital of two 
millions, and the New York Manufacturing Company, 
the ancestor of the Phoenix Bank, with a capital of one 
million two hundred thousand, were also incorporated 
during the same session by the Legislature. These were 
followed by a new National Bank, chartered in 1816 for 
twenty years, with a capital of thirty-five millions, v. 
branch bank of which was established in New York, in 
Wall street. 

In 1819, the city was visited by the yellow fever, 
which soon disappeared, to return with increased violence 
in 1823, when its reappearance excited universal conster- 
nation. This time, the disease broke out in a new 
quarter. Hitherto, it had invariably made its first 
appearance on the eastern side of the town ; it now 
commenced in Rector street, near the North River — a 
neighborhood which had always been peculiarly healthy, 
and confined its ravages to that quarter of the city. 
Although the fever had visited the city so often that it 
might almost have been considered a naturalized disease, 
with the appearance of which the citizens had grown 
familiar through habit, it seemed this year to be regarded 



714 HISTORY OF THE 

?.ith osiiecial consternation. All who could, fied me city -. 
the banks and custom house were removed to Greenwicii 
village, the streets below the Park, comprising the 
infected district, were walled iip, and all intercourse with 
them strictly prohibited, and the residents therein who 
were unwilling to quit their homes were forcibly removed 
by the Board of Health. For a time, business was 
entirely suspended, and the city wore the aspect of 
ab.'^olute solitude, broken only by the rumbling of the 
hearses, and the shadows of the nurses who remained to 
watch the dying and care for the burial of the dead. 
But these precautions tended greatly to check the ra- 
vaees of the disease. From the commencement of the 
fever, on the 17th of June, to its disappearance, on the 
2d of November, the deaths numbered but two hun- 
dred and forty, being far less than in most of its pre- 
vious visitations. The quarantine, established at Staten 
Island in 1821, soon checked the periodical recurrence 
of the disease, which appeared for the last time during 
this summer. 

In the summer of 1824, news was received that Gene- 
ral Lafayette was on his way to New York, and the 
corporation at once prepared to welcome him as the 
guest of the city upon his arrival. The idol of the whole 
country, he was especially such of the city of New York, 
made up in great part of the so-called " French party," 
which had sympathized warmly with France in the 
struggle for independence, headed in the first place 
by Lafayette ; which had denounced the neutrality 
of the American government as cowardly and dis- 
honorable, and which let no opportunity slip for 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



715 



demonstrating its attachment to Prance, and its corres- 
ponding detestation of her rival, Great Britain. Xot 
less was he beloved by the opposite party — the friend ol 
Hamilton, the adopted brother of Wasliington. the 
favorite of all liis companions in arms, he liad won 
o-olden opinions from all ranks and parties by his frank- 
ness and valor in the American Revolution, and his visit 
was a continnous march of triumph throughout the 
country. On Sunday, the 15th of August, he arrived in 
the ship Cadmus, and landed on Staten Island, where he 
remained till the next day at the residence of Daniel D. 
Tompkins, at this time Vice-President of the United 
States. On Monday, he was escorted up to the city by 
a large naval procession, and landed at Castle Garden 
amid the ringing of bells, the salutes of artillery and the 
shouts of the enthusiastic multitude, assembled to wel- 
come the guest of the nation. Prom the Battery, he 
was escorted to the City Hall, where he was welcomed 
by the corporation, assembled there to receive him, and 
congratulated by Mayor Paulding on his safe arrival, 
then conducted to Bunker's Mansion House, where free 
quarters had been provided for him and his suite. Dur- 
ing his stay in the city, he visited the navy yard, fortifi- 
cations and public institutions, and held a daily levee in 
the City Hall, where he was waited upon by thousands 
of the citizens. At his departure, he was escorted by a 
large detachment of troops to Kingsbridge, whence he 
set out for his proposed tour through the States. The 
beginning was but the augury of the future. Every- 
where, the same welcome and the same festivities awaited 
him, and when he returned to New York in September 



) [Q HISTORY OF THE 

1825, having accomplished a tour through the whole 
country in the space of thirteen months, despite hi? 
lameness and his eighty-six years, the citizens bade adieu 
to him in a fete at Castle Garden which surpassed any- 
thing of the kind before witnessed in the country. 

The year 1825 witnessed the completion of a public 
work to which the city owes much of its present import- 
ance — the Erie Canal. This gigantic enterprise grew out 
of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, incor- 
porated in 1792, with fifty members, for the purpose of 
improving the navigation of the Mohawk River and of 
opening a communication by canal to Seneca Lake and 
Lake Ontario. Of this company, General Philip Schuy- 
ler was president, and Barent Bleecker, Jeremiah John- 
son and Elkanah Watson of Albany, with Thomas Eddy 
and Walter Bowne of New York, the most active mem- 
bers. The Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company 
was also organized about the same time for the purpose 
of opening a communication between the Hudson River 
and Lake Champlain. The route in question was care- 
fully surveyed by Mr. Weston, a civil engineer from 
England, in company with Thomas Eddy ; and their 
reports, added to a tour of observation made by himself 
in 1800 through the western part of the State, suggested 
to Gouverneur Morris, who was actively interested in 
the enterprise, the idea of a canal from the Hudson River 
to Lake Erie. The proposal attracted general attention : 
the aid of the federal government was solicited in the 
matter, and, failing to obtain this, a resolution calling 
attention to the subject was introduced into the State 
Legislature, in 1808, by Joshua Forman, of Onondaga 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 717 

County, and the surveyor-general directed to have the 
route in question explored and surveyed, the sum of six 
hundred dollars being appropriated for the purpose. 
The survey was made by James Geddes, and a report 
of it furnished to the surveyor-general in 1809. On the 
13th of March of the following year, the subject was 
brought up in the Senate by Jonas Piatt, and De Witt 
Clinton, at this time a member of the Senate, was 
induced to give his support to the measure. From this 
time, dates the interest of Clinton in the canal ; and, 
though he was not the original projector of the scheme, 
it may safely be affirmed that to his practical talent, his 
indomitable energy and his obstinate perseverance is due 
the successful termination of the stu^^endous work — the 
giant of canals and the pride of the Empire State. 
Through his influence, the project was received with 
favor in the Senate, and a committee appointed con- 
sisting of Gouverneur Morris, Stephen Van Rensselaer, 
William North, Thomas Eddy, Peter B. Porter, Robert 
R. Livingston, and Robert Fulton, of which Morris was 
chairman, to survey the track of the canal, take levels, 
make estimates and form plans. In 1811, a report was 
furnished in behalf of the committee by Gouverneur 
Morris, accompanied with a finely executed map of the 
whole route ; upon the' receipt of which, a bill was 
brought into the Legislature by Clinton and passed on 
the 8th of April, vesting the canal commissioners with 
full executive power in respect to the navigation between 
the Hudson and the Lakes — and now the struggle began. 
The war, breaking out almost immeiliately, greatly 
retarded the progress of the work. The magnitude of 



718 HISTORY OF THE 

the undertaking startled the citizens, many of whom 
sneered at it as visionary, and termed it, in derision, 
"Clinton's big ditch;" and the opponents of Clinton 
made of the scheme a political issue, and thus strength- 
ened the opposition by the prejudice of party. Clinton 
and Morris, after vainly soliciting aid from the national 
government, appealed for assistance to individual States, 
and, aided by their friends, struggled long and eaniestl}' 
for the success of the enterprise. How much the public 
expression of sympathy in the city of New York contri- 
buted to the ultimate success of their endeavors will best 
be told in Clinton's own words. " At the commence- 
" ment of the year 1816," says he, in his reply to the 
New York Address, " a few individuals held a consulta- 
' tion in the city of New York, for the purpose of call- 
' ing the public attention to the contemplated Western 
' and Northern Canals. The difficulties to be sur- 
' mounted were of the most formidable aspect. The 
' State, in consequence of her patriotic exertions during 
'the war, w^as considerably embarrassed in her finances; 
' a current of hostility had set in against the project; 
' and the preliminary measures, however well intended, 
' ably devised or faithfull}- executed, had unfortunately 
' increased instead of allaj'ing prejudice. And such was 
' the weight of these and other considerations, that the 
' plan was generally viewed as abandoned. Experience 
' evinces that it is much easier to originate a measure 
' successfully, than it is to revive one which has alread_v 
' been unfavorably received. Notwithstanding those; 
' appalling obstacles, which were duly considoreu, a 
' public meeting was called, of which William Baj^ard 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 710 

•'was chairman and John Pinturd secretary ; a memorial 
" in favor of tiie canal polic}' was read and approved, 
"and a correspondent spirit, which induced the Legisla- 
" ture to pass a law authorizing surveys and examina- 
" tions, took place in every part of the State." 

On the 17th of April, 1816, a law was passed, appoint- 
ing a board of commissioners with authority to laj out 
the track of the canals, and appropriating twenty 
thousand dollars for the purpose. De Witt Clinton wa.« 
appointed president of the board, then removed fron; 
the office in 1824, in direct opposition to the wishes of 
the friends of the undertaking. On the 10th of March 
1817, the commissioners presented an elaborate report 
of their proceedings to the Legislature ; and on the 
17th of April, 1817, a law was passed amid the most 
strenuous opposition, providing funds for the construc- 
tion of a grand canal, three hundred and sixty-three 
miles in length, with a surface of forty feet in breadth, 
declined to eighteen feet at the bottom, and containing 
a depth of four feet of water, sufficient for convey^- 
ing vessels of more than one hundred tons biu'den, 
which should connect the waters of the Great Lakes 
with the Atlantic ocean, and form, next to the great 
wall of China, the longest line of continued labor in the 
world. 

On the 4th of July, 1817, the ground was first broken 
for the canal by James Richardson, on the middle section 
in the vicinity of Rome, and from this date the work did 
not cease for a single day until its completion in 1825. 
On the 22d of October, 1819, the first boat sailed on the 
Brie canal from Rome to Utica, with De Witt Clintcn, 



720 HISTORY OF THE 

then governor of the State, Chancellor Livingston, Gen, 
S. Van Rensselaer, and a large party of friends of the 
enterprise on board. This was a passenger-boat, named 
the Chief Engineer, in comphment to Benjamin Wright, 
and was dragged by a single horse. 

The work completed, the city of New York was 
naturally selected as the most suitable place for the 
canal celebration. On the morning of the 26th of 
October, 1825, the first flotilla of canal-boats left Buffalo 
for New York, where the intelligence of its departure 
was received one hour and twenty minutes after by the 
sound of cannon, stationed along the line. The answer 
was returned in the same time ; and thus, in less than 
three hours, Buffalo had spoken to New York and 
received a reply. In our days of telegraphs, this seems 
filow conversation ; but the electric wire had not then 
girdled the earth, and this rapid transmission of news 
seemed almost a miracle. 

On the 4th of November, at about five o'clock in the 
morning, the fleet, consisting of the Chancellor Living- 
ston, in which were Clinton and his party, with a long 
line of canal packet-boats in tow, arrived at New York 
and anchored near the State Prison at Greenwich, amid 
the ringing of bells and the salutes of artillery. Here 
they were met by the steamship "Washington, with a 
deputation from the Common Council on board, to con- 
gratulate the company on their arrival from Lake Erie. 
The fleet soon after weighed anchor, and, rounding the 
Battery, proceeded up the East River to the Navy Yard, 
where salutes were fired, and the visitors were met by 
the corporation. Here a grand naval procession was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 721 

formed, consisting of nearly all the vessels in port 
gaily decked with colors of all nations, and escorted tc 
the United States schooner Dolphin, moored within 
Sandy Hook, where the great ceremony of the day was 
to be performed. The actors in the programme having 
entered the schooner, the vessels in the procession 
formed a circle about the spot, and Clinton poured a keg 
of the fresh water of Lake Erie into the waves, thus 
wedding the inland seas with the Atlantic ocean. Fol- 
lowing in his footsteps. Dr. Mitchill poured into the 
waves waters which he had gathered from every zone— 
from the Ganges and the Indus, the Nile and the 
Gambia, the Thames, the Seine, the Rhine and the 
Danube, the Mississippi and Columbia, the Orinoco, the 
Plate and the Amazon, in token of the varied commerce 
which would gather about the island, destined to become 
the commercial centre of the Avorld. On the land, the 
celebration was not less imposing. A civic procession 
four and a half miles in length, numbering nearly seven 
thousand persons, paraded with banners and music 
through the principal streets of the city, then proceeded 
to the Battery to meet the corporation on their return 
from Sandy Hook. A magnificent display of fireworks 
was given in the evening in the Park, the public and 
private buildings were illuminated, and the whole city 
wore an air of festivity. Not a single accident occurred 
to mar the harmony of the day, and the Erie Canal 
celebration may justly be ranked as one of the most 
successful pageants ever witnessed in the city. 

Governor Clinton did not long enjoy his triumph, but 
expired suddenly of disease of the heart while sitting in 
46 



IZZ CITY OF NEW YORK. 

his library on the 11th of February, 1828. The news 
of his decease occasioned deep grief in the city of which 
he had been the greatest benefactor. Suitable public 
testimonials of respect were offered by the corporation 
to his memory, and, on the Canal anniversary of 1853, 
a colossal bronze statue of him, executed by H. K. Brown, 
of Newburgh, to the order of several private citizens of 
New York, wa.s set up Avith appropriate ceremonies in 
Greenwood Cemetery. Mr. Clinton was t^vice manied ; 
first, to Miss Maria Franklin, daughter of an eminent 
merchant of the city, by whom he had seven sons and 
tiiree daughters ; and lastly, to Miss Catherine Jones. 
liaughter of Dr. Thomas Jones of New York, who sur- 
vived him. 



CHAPTER XXI 



'Jas Companies — The Italian Opera — Journalism in the city— Great Fire of 1835— Com- 
mercial Panic in 1837- The Croton Aqueduct — Astor Place OperaHouse Riot — Crystal 
Palace — Position of Affairs in 1855. 



PfoR was the Erie Canal — a work, of all others, rele- 
vant to the history of the city, to the growth of which 
it has contributed so largely — the only puljlic improve- 
ment that sprung into existence during the year 1825 ; 
gas-pipes, joint-stock companies, the opera, the Sunday 
press, and the Merchants' Exchange, all made their first 
advent in the great metropolis in the course of the same 
year. 

First, of the introduction of gas into the city. Hitherto, 
the streets had been dimly lighted with oil ; and though 
efforts had been made to substitute something better, 
and experiments had even been made in the Park with 
gas-lights as early as the summer of 1812, nothing defi- 
nite was done until March, 1823, when the New York 
Gas Light Company was incorporated with a capital of 
$1,000,000, with the privilege of supplying all that part 



724 HISTORY OF THE 

of the city south of Canal and Grand streets. In May, 
1825, it commenced the proposed improvement by laying 
gas-pipes iu Broadway on both sides of the street, from 
Canal street to the Battery. From these, they were 
gradually extended over the southern j)art of the island, 
though for years the city presented a checkered appear- 
ance, with one block dimly lighted by the ancient oil- 
lamps, and the next brilliantly illuminated from the 
works of the new gas company. In 1830, the impi-ove- 
ment was extended to the northern part of the island by 
the incorporation of the Manhattan Gas Light Company, 
with a capital of $500,000, for the purpose of supplying 
the upper port of the city, not included within the Hmits 
of the New York Company. The innovation soon grew 
into favor ; both companies have been eminently success- 
ful, and at the present day, nearly the whole of New 
York Island is veined with a net-work of pipes, both of 
gas and water, bringing the two elements into the homes 
of the citizens, ready to gush forth at the touch of the 
obedient faucet. 

Not so beneficial in their resvilts were the joint-stock 
companies, which, following in the lead of the specula- 
tive fever which was raging at this time so fiercely in 
England, rose only to lead an ephemeral existence, and 
to fall again in the course of the following year with a 
terrible crash, involving the all of thousands in a com- 
mon ruin. The history of these is of too recent a date to 
be classed as yet among historical facts, nor would our 
limits permit it, were we disposed for the investigation ; 
it suffices to say that the commercial panic of 182G, 
brought on by the failure of numerous joint-stock com 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 725 

panies, some under the control of fraudulent stock-job- 
bers, and others of visionary enthusiasts, honest in 
purpose, yet misled themselves and misleading others by 
the bubble of colossal fortunes, built up in a day by a 
fortunate stroke, destroyed, for a time, all confidence in 
business, and utterly paralyzed the commerce of the city. 
But this state of affairs was of short duration ; business 
gradually revived on a surer basis, the public lost confi- 
dence in the lotteries, bogus banks, and kindred schemes 
with which the whole country had previously been flooded, 
and the chaos resulted in good to the whole community. 
This year witnessed the first effort to introduce the 
Italian opera to the shores of the New "World. The 
theatre was already a fixed institution ; the stage ot the 
old Park Theatre had witnessed the performances of 
Cooke, Kean, Cooper, Booth, Wallack, Conway, Math- 
ews and many others ; Incledon, Braham, Phillips and 
other vocalists had also been received with favor by the 
New York public ; yet no attempt had been made at 
operatic performances. In 1825, the Garcia troupe 
arrived, and, on the 29th of November, made their first 
appearance at the Park Theatre in the opera of " II 
Barbiere di Seviglia," in which Signorina Garcia, after- 
ward the celebrated Malibran, then but seventeen years 
of age, made her dibut before the American public, and 
was received with unbounded enthusiasm. The genius 
of the great artist was quickly recognized, and the press 
of the city teemed with her praises. The first opera 
was continued for thirty consecutive nights, then replaced 
by others with equal success. She afterward appeared 
in English opera at the Bowery Theatre, opened for the 



726 UISTORY OF TUE 

first time in October, 1826, where she received ten 
thousand dollars for seventeen nights' performances. But 
the attempt was premature ; the country was still too 
young to afford the nv^oessary encouragement to art, and, 
finding their success not commensurate with their wishes, 
the artists determined, after two years' trial, to abandon 
the enterprise, and, in 1827, set sail for France, where 
the youthful prima donna won herself a world-wide 
reputation as the acknowledged Queen of Song, then 
expired in the midst of her triumph, at the early age of 
twenty-eight. Other attempts to establish the Italian 
Opera on a permanent basis soon followed with like 
success. Palmo, with a choice troupe of artists and a 
tasteful little Opera House, seemed likely for a time to 
succeed, but was forced at last to abandon the enterprise. 
The Astor Place Opera House, built in 1848, bore the 
stamp of failure from its very foundation, and, passing 
in 1852 into the hands of Donetti, was converted into a, 
menagerie ; then, in 1854, was purchased by the Mer- 
cantile Library Association and transformed into the 
present CUnton Hall. The Academy of Music was 
opened in 1855, and, after repeated failures. Max Maret- 
zek succeeded in naturalizing the Italian opera within 
its walls. It was burned on the night of May 21, 1866, 
together with the Medical College in Fourteenth street, 
but was immediately rebuilt, and was formally reopened 
by a masked ball, March 1, 1867. 

This was also the epoch of the introduction of marble 
as a building material. Marbles abounded of every 
shade and texture, and of a fineness unsurpassed by any 
in the Old "World, yet so strong was the prejudice exist- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 729 

ing against them that when the American Museum, the 
first marble-fronted building in the city after the City 
Hall, was built in 1824, not a workman could be per- 
suaded to put up the edifice, and, as a last resort, a con- 
vict was pardoned out of the State Prison at Sing Sing 
on condition that he would perform the work. This 
museum was built by John Scudder, who removed his 
collection thither from the rooms which he had formerly 
occupied in the New York Institution. It remained in 
his hands and those of his heirs until 1840, when it was 
purchased by P. T. Barnum, who soon after added to it 
the collection of Peale's New York Museum, located in 
Broadway near the corner of Murray street, which had 
been purchased of the proprietor in 1838 by the New 
York Museum Company. 

In 1825, the erection of the Merchants' Exchange in 
Wall street was commenced and finished in 1827, when 
the Post-office was removed to the Rotunda, where it 
remained until its destruction by the conflagration of 
1835. The New York University, the Masonic Hall in 
Broadway, nearly opposite the New York Hospital, the 
Arcade in Maiden Lane, and many other buildings of 
more or less interest were also erected about the same 
time. 

The approaching presidential election of 1828, rallied 
the parties together for a new contest. John Quincy 
Adams, the regnant President, was the candidate of the 
National Repubhcans, the lineal descendants of the old 
federal party; while the pseudo "Albany Regency 
"party," with the republicans at large, supported the 
claims of General Andrew Jackson, the hero of New 



730 



HISTORY OF THE 




Til isl 



The New York Unifersity. 

Orleans. The friends of the latter at this time assumed 
the name of Democrats ; a term which had first been 
ibestowed on them in derision in the days of the French 
"Revolution, and which originated, like most of the parti- 
san names, in New York city. The city, increased in 
1827 by the addition of two wards, was now again under 
the rule of Mayor Paulding, who had sujjerseded Mayor 
Hone in 1826. The democrats had clearly gained the 
ascendency, and in the charter elections of 1826, '7, '8 
and '9, succeeded in electing a majority in both boards 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 731 

of the Common Council. In the federal election, they 
also obtained the victory, and placed their candidate in 
the ^^residential chair of the United States. 

This was also tlie epoch of the anti-masonic excite- 
ment, arising from the abduction and supposed murder, 
in 1826, of William Morgan, a recreant Mason of Bata- 
via, who had threatened to expose the secrets of the fra- 
ternity. This charge was soon converted into a political 
weapon, a combination was formed against the Masons, 
at this time a large and flourishing society, the most 
extravagant rumors of diabolical practices in their secret 
conclaves were put in circulation, and at the elections of 
1827, the people, forgetting the ancient party divisions, 
ranked themselves as Masons or anti-Masons at the polls. 
The persecution of the luckless society was fanatical in 
the extreme ; a number of prominent papers opened a 
crusade against it, public meetings were held at which 
seceders from its ranks denounced it as the sum and sub- 
stance of all wickedness, and a prejudice was excited 
throughout the community which paralyzed it for years, 
and seemed for a time to threaten its existence. Before 
the presidential election, the anti-Masonic colors were 
adopted by the enemies of Jackson, while the democrats 
ranged themselves on the side of the hunted Masons , 
but, though the latter succeeded in electing their candi- 
dates at the polls, their efforts could not save the fated 
society from the unpopularity which long checked its 
growth. The fate of Morgan was never positively 
known ; a body found in Lake Ontario was declared to 
be his by the anti-Masonic party — " a good enough 
Morgan till after the election," the friends of the Masons 



732 niSTORr of the 

called it ; and much doubt there was indeed of its iden- 
tity. The society became almost a dead letter, and it 
is only within a short time that it has revived from the 
paralysis and regained its former position. 

In the course of the year 1829, Walter Bowne, a mer- 
chant of New York, and a prominent politician of the 
democratic party, was appointed mayor in the place of 
William Paulding. Mr. Bowne was a lineal descendant 
of John Bowne, the leader of the Quakers at Flushing, 
who had been imprisoned for his faith by the order of 
Stuyvesant ; then released by the West India Company, 
who would sanction no religious persecution within their 
dominions. 

On the 7th of April, 1830, an amended charter was 
granted to the city, which provided for separate meet- 
ings of the two boards, and excluded the mayor and 
recorder from the Common Council, giving the mayor, 
however, the power of approving or disapproving the 
acts of this body. In the course of the following year, 
the Fifteenth Ward was added to the city. 

New political issues arose on the approach of the pre- 
sidential election of 1832, and with them new divisions 
of party. The workingmen's party, suddenly arising in 
the State election of 1830 to secure for mechanics a lien 
on the buildings which tliey had erected for the better 
security of their wages and electing Throop as gov- 
ernor, then as suddenly vanishing from existence, had 
not interfered with the charter elections of the city. 
The democrats still preserved their ascendency, electing a 
majority in both boards, though enough national repub- 
licans were found in the city to insure a warm contest 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 733 

at the polls. The first steps toward the organization of 
the whig party were taken by the latter in 1830, at a 
meeting held in the city of New York, at which Henry 
Clay was nominated to the Presidency. 

The party lines were now distinctly drawn, and for 
more than twenty years the people continued to be 
divided into the two great sections of Whigs and Demo- 
crats. The foi-mer, first adopting their distinctive appel- 
lation in the charter elections of 1833, rallied at first by 
the name of the Clay party under the banners of Henry 
Clay, in favor of a protective tariff together with the 
preservation of a national bank ; the latter supported 
the reelection of Jackson, who had lately doomed this 
bank to dissolution by his veto of the bill passed by Con- 
gress to grant it a new charter in 1836, when the first 
would expire by its own limitation. The democrats 
were everywhere successful, electing Jackson as Presi- 
dent and William L. Marcy as governor of the State, and 
gaining large majorities in both boards of the Common 
Council. In the following year. Mayor Bowne was super- 
seded in the mayoralty by Gideon Lee, a New York mer- 
chant of eastern extraction, notable for having been one 
of the pioneers of the leather business in Ferry street. 

In 1832, New York, now freed from the periodical 
ravages of yellow fever by the strict enforcement of 
quarantine regulations, was visited for the first time by 
the Asiatic cholera, wliich raged to a fearful extent, 
almost depopulating the city and creating a universal 
panic among the inhabitants. It returned two years 
after, modified in violence, then disappeared entirely 
until 1849, when it broke out early in the summer, and 



734 HISTORY OF THE 

raged fearfully until late in autumn. In 1855, it again 
appeared, nor has it since wholly abandoned the city, 
but remains lurking in its midst, striking down a few 
victims here and there every summer, yet reserving its 
force for some future devastation. 

One of the most important events in the history of this 
era in its bearings upon the city as well as the whole 
country, was the establishment of the penny press ; an 
institution which opened the way for cheap literature, 
and, by placing the daily journals within reach of every 
citizen, disseminated general knowledge, and tended 
emphatically to make of our people what they are now 
acknowledged to be — the greatest reading nation of any 
on the globe. 

At this time, there were about fifty daily, weekly, 
semi-weekly and monthly journals in New York. Fore- 
most among these were the Commercial Advertiser, the 
oldest of the city papers, at this time under the charge 
of Col. William L. Stone ; the Evening Post, edited by 
William Coleman ; the Morning Coxirier of James Wat- 
son Webb and the New York Enquirer of Mordecai M. 
Noah, blended, in 1829 into the Courier and Eiiquirer ; 
the Journal of Commerce, commenced in 1827 under the 
editorship of David Hale ; the Standard, edited by John 
I. Mumford, and the Spirit of the Times, just issued by 
WiUiam T. Porter. The New York Mirror, edited by 
George P. Morris, in which N. P. Willis was first attract- 
ing public attention by a series of piquant European 
letters, and the Knickerbocker Magazine, commenced in 
1833 under the auspices of Peabody and subsequently 
sold by him to Louis Gaylord Clark and Clement M. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



735 




Old Church of the Messiah in Broadway. 



Edson, were the only literary papers of the city. In 
these, Irving, Cooper, Paulding, Bryant, Sinims, Fay, 
and a host of others, now well-known veterans in the 
literary world, made their first essays as candidates 
for public favor, and won an earnest of their future 
laurels. 

The dailies were sixpenny journals, and were distri- 
buted to regular subscribers. Newsboys were unknown, 
and though, upon the occurrence of some unusual event, 



736 HISTORYOFTIIE 

a hundred extra copies were sometimes struck ofF in 
view of a possible outside demand, the chances for the 
sale of these were so hazardous, that few of the dis- 
tributors cared to take the trouble and responsibility of 
offering them for sale. On the 29th of October, 1832, 
the New York Globe, a two-cent paper, was issued by 
James Gordon Bennett, the founder of the N'e^o Yorh 
Herald, ^vho tad been for several years connected with 
the National Advocate and the Courier and Enc[nirer ; 
but the experiment proved unsuccessful, and the paper 
exi)ired just one month after the date of its birth. 

The idea of the possibility of a penny paper first 
originated in the brain of Dr, Horati David Sheppard, 
a young medical student, rich in hopes but lacking in 
money, who vainly endeavored to persuade his friends 
of the feasibility of the scheme. Convinced as he was 
that a spicy journal, offered everywhere by boys at the 
low price of one cent, would be bought up by the crowd 
with avidity, he found the idea scouted by all the jour- 
nalists of the city to whom he in turn applied, and when 
he finally succeeded in prevailing upon Horace Greeley 
and Francis Story, who were on the point of setting up 
a printing establishment, to print his paper and give him 
credit for a week, he could only secure their cooperation 
by fixing the price at two cents per copy. On the 1st 
of January, 1833, he issued the Morning Post, his pro- 
jected paper, in the midst of a violent snow-storm, which 
checked the sale and disheartened the few newsboys 
engaged in the enterprise. At the end of the first 
week, he met the promised payment, during the second, 
his receipts scarcely covered half his expenses, and at the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 737 

expiration of the third, the young printers, themselves 
almost destitute of capital, finding him wholly unable to 
meet his engagements, were compelled to refuse him 
further credit, and thus to stop the publication of the 
paper. Discouraged at his ill success, Dr. Sheppard 
abandoned the ranks of journalism and returned to his 
profession. 

The idea fell into other hands. On the 3d of Septem- 
ber, 1833, Benjamin H. Day, who, in 1829, had com- 
menced the publication of the Daily Sentinel, which he 
afterward sold to George H. Evans, issued the Sun, the 
first penny paper ever published in New York. Ho 
soon discovered that he had struck a vein. Sneered at 
and despised by its more pretentious contemporaries, the 
cheapness of the little paper commended it to the mass, 
and in less than a year, its circulation increased to eight 
thousand copies. 

Entering the lists of competition with its powerful 
rivals without subscribers, and the acknowledged organ 
of no party, the proprietor of the new journal struck 
upon the method for insuring its circulation first projected 
by Sheppard, and, advertising for boys to work for him 
at two dollars per week, dispatched them with a 
hundred and twenty-five copies each to different parts 
of the city to cry the papers for sale to the passers-by, 
with a promise of more at a reduced rate as soon as 
these should be disposed of. In the course of two or 
three hours, the papers were sold, and the boys came 
back for a fresh supply, which was given them at the 
rate of nine cents per dozen ; and from this period may 
be dated the origin of the race of newsboys, now 
47 



.00 H I S T R Y F T n E 

flaturalized in almost every city in the Union. The 
experiment soon proved successful ; and the boys made 
the business profitable both to themselves and their 
employer. Ere long, the other publishers, taking the 
cue from this success, published an extra edition of their 
papers for the newsboys, while, by way of exchange, 
several of the regular distributors of these, finding that 
the profits of the boys amounted to more than their 
small weekly salaries, set to work to procure subscribers 
to tlie Sun, and to establish newspaper routes as private 
speculations. 

The most curious fact in the history of this first penny 
journal, was the publication of the celebrated " Moon 
Hoax," or Discoveries in the Moon, written by Richard 
Adams Locke, at that time editor of the Siin and subse- 
quently one of the propi-iotors of the Netv Era. This 
paper, wliich purported to be an account of Sir John 
F. W. Herschel's discoveries at the Cape of Good Hope, 
taken from the Supplement of the Edinburgh Philosophical 
Journal, was written with every appearance of con- 
sistency. After disarming suspicion by a scientific 
description of an ingeniously-invented telescope by 
which these discoveries had been made, the author pro- 
ceeded to delineate the geographical features and the 
inhabitants of the moon with such graphic power and 
show of probability, that the gravest journals swallowed 
the bait, and took the account as a historical fact, piqued 
as they were at the lucky chance which had thrown the 
earliest intelligence of so important a discovery into the 
hands of the despised penny paper. One journal, 
indeed, gravely assured its readers on the day after the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 739 

puLlicatioii in the Sun of the lunar discoveries, that it 
had also received the account by the same mail, and was 
only prevented from publishing it l)y want of sufficient 
space. The papers throughout the country copied and 
commented on the article, keeping its much despised 
origin as far as possible out of sight, and, in many cases, 
leaving it to be supposed that they themselves had 
copied it from the Edinburgh " Supplement." Sir John 
Ilerschel was everywhere extolled as the greatest dis- 
coverer of the age, and enthusiasts even began to 
speculate on the possibility of opening a telegraphic 
communication with their newly-descried neighbors. 
The discovery of the hoax excited universal merriment ; 
but the offence was not soon forgotten or forgiven by 
the cheated contemporaries of the paper which had 
issued the canard. In 1838, Mr. Day disposed of the 
Sim establishment to Moses Y. Beach for thirty-eight 
thousand dollars. 

Stimulated by the success of this enterprise, in 1834, 
William J. Stanley, Willoughby Lynde, and Billings 
liayward, commenced the publication of a second penny 
paper called the Transcript. This proved tolerably sue 
cessful, and was continued until 1839. Soon after its 
publication, the Moon was issued by George H. Evans, 
the printer and publisher of the Working Mens Advocate. 
This, which was also a penny paper, survived but two or 
three years. The fourth penny paper, the Morning Star, 
was published soon after by Lincoln & Simmons ; but 
this proved a failure, as did also the Morning Dis- 
patch, published in 1839, by Day, the former proprietor 
of the Sim, and edited by H. Hastings Weld. 



740 BISTORT OF THE 

At this time, some of the best known journaHsts of 
the present day made their debut in the ranks of their 
profession. On the 22d of March, 1834, Horace Gree- 
ley, Jonas Winchester, and E. Sibbett, commenced the 
pubhcation of the New Yorker, printed at first on a large 
folio sheet, and afterward in two forms, folio and quarto, 
the former at two and the latter at three dollars a year. 
This paper, though literary in its general character, 
leaned strongly to the side of the whig party. Park 
Benjamin was an occasional contributor to its columns, 
and in 1840 Henry J. Raymond, aftenvards editor of 
the New Yorh Times, then a recent gi'aduate of Burling- 
ton College, Vermont, began his editorial career upon a 
salary of eight dollars per week. On the 6th of May, 
1835, the NrAu York Herald made its appearance as a 
two-cent paper, under the auspices of James Gordon 
Bennett and Anderson & Smith, a printing firm in Ann 
street. A few months after, the office of the paper, 
together with the whole printing establishment, was 
destroyed by fire ; upon which Anderson and Smith 
withdrew from the firm, leaving the paper in the charge 
of Bennett, who subsequently retained absolute control 
of its colunms. In June of the same year, the New 
York Express was first issued by James and Erastus 
Brooks, and on the 10th of April, 1841, the Tribune 
appeared as the avowed organ of the whig party, edited 
by Horace Greeley with the assistance of Henry J. Ray- 
mond. This was a daily penny paper, about one-third 
the size of the present Tribune. In the ensuing July, 
Greele y formed a partnership with Thomas McElrath, 
and soon after merged the New Yorker, together with 



CITY OP NEW YORK. 741 

tlie Log Cabin, a small paper which he had issued during 
the Harrison campaign, into the Weekly Tribune. Ray- 
mond quitted the paper two years after to form a 
connection with the Courier and Enquirer, which he 
maintained for several years ; then, on the 18th of Sep- 
tember, 1851, issued the first number of the N. Y. Daily 
Times, at fii'st a penny sheet, which, the following 
year, was doubled in price and size, and thus placed on a 
par with the most prominent of the rival dailies. 

At the time of the establishment of the N. Y. Tribu7ie, 
a hundred periodicals and twelve daily papers were 
published in the city of New York. Of these, the 
Commercial Advertiser, Courier and Enquirer, New York 
American, Express, and Tribune, supported the whigs ; 
the Evening Post, Journal of Commerce, Sun, and Herald, 
inclined to the democratic party, and the Signal, Star, 
and Tatler were neutral. The Commercial Advertiser, 
was then, as now, the oldest journal in the city, having 
been first issued on the 9th of December, 1793. Next 
was the Evening Post, which, commenced as a federal 
paper in 1800, had, in 1830, espoused the cause of the 
democratic party. 

The year 1835 will long be remembered as the era of 
the most fearful conflagration that ever devastated the 
city of New York. The fire broke out on the night of 
the 16th of December, in the lower part of the city. 
The night was intensely cold — colder than any that had 
been known for more than half a century ; the little water 
that could be obtained froze in the fire-hose before it 
could be used, the buildings were mostly old and wooden ; 
in short, everything favored the work of destruction. 



742 



HISTORY OF THE 



The flames raged fiercely for three days, completely lay- 
ing waste the busmess part of tlie city, and consuming 
648 houses and stores Avith $18,000,000 worth of pro- 
perty ; among which were the marble Exchange in Wall 
street, hitherto deemed fire-proof, and the South Dutch 
Church in Garden street. Some buildings were finall}' 
blown up by gunpowder by order of the mayor, and the 
work of ruin was thus arrested. But the destruction had 
been fearful, and not less terrible were the consequences. 
Unable to meet the heavy demands of the suflerers, the 
insurance companies unanimously suspended payment, 
and the city seemed almost beggared at a blow. 

Close upon this calamity followed the commercial 
distress of the winter of 1837, which succeeded tlie sus- 




Wall street looking toward Broad-n-ay. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 74" 

pension of the United States Bank. For a time, the 
business world seemed utterly paralyzed, bankruptcy 
followed bankruptcy in quick succession, and ere long 
the banks of the State unanimously suspended payment 
for one year, having been authorized to do so by the 
State legislature. But the elasticit;y of the city was not 
long depressed by these misfortunes, a reaction took 
place before many months had passed, and business 
revived more briskly than before. 

Cornelius W. Lawrence was at this rime mayor of the 
city, for the first time elected to the office by the votes 
of the people in April, 1834, in conformity with a recent 
amendment to the State Constitution. Mr. Lawrence 
was the candidate of the democratic party, which still 
retained its ascendency in the politics of the city. Two 
new parties had recently arisen ; the native American, 
whose policy it was to exclude all foreigners from a voice 
in political affairs ; and the equal rights or agrarian 
party, which, crystallizing in 1829 through the influence 
of the lectures of Frances Wright, then on her second 
visit to the country, had grown into a powerful faction, 
and now aspired to the leadership of the democratic 
party, from whose ranks it had first sprung. This name 
was also claimed by the Tammany party. The two fac- 
tions assembled together at the primary meetings at 
Tammany Hall, the acknowledged democratic head- 
quarters, each assuming precedence in the councils of the 
party, and scenes of \aolence often ensued. A curious 
accident fastened the name of " loco foco" on the friends 
of equal rights, a name which afterward came to be 
applied to the whole democratic party. 



744 HISTORY OF THE 

Loco foco matches — an outgrowth from the phospho- 
rized sphnters with their accompanying vial of acid and 
cotton which, in 1825, had superseded the ancient tinder- 
box, with its flint and steel — had recently come into use 
with the penny newspapers, and were still regarded as a 
novelty by the community at large. At a ratification 
meeting held in Tammany Hall in 1835, at which the 
Tammany men, finding themselves in the minority, 
suddenly turned off the gas and left the assembly in 
darkness, a box of the newly invented matches was 
opportunely produced by the opposite party, which was 
henceforth derisively styled " loco foco " by its oppo- 
nents. The faction, however, accepted the name, and, 
idealizing it into an emblem of promptitude, proudly 
wore it as a badge of honor, and it was not long before 
the once despised nickname was adopted and acknow- 
ledged by the whole democratic party. It is a curious 
fact that most if not all of the party appellations which 
have served at various times to distinguish the politics 
of the country first originated in this city — republican, 
federalist, whig, democrat, loco foco, and many more. 

The Sixteenth Ward was created in 1835, as was also 
the Seventeeth during the following year. At the spring 
election of 1837, Aaron Clark was elected mayor by the 
whigs, who also succeeded in gaining majorities in both 
boards of the Common Council. The election of the fol- 
lowing year was attended with the same result, but in 
the spring of 1839, Mr. Clark, who had been for the 
third time nominated by his party to the mayoralty, was 
defeated by Isaac L. Yarian, the candidate of the demo- 
crats, who carried twelve wards out of the seventeen bv 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 745 

small majorities. Mr. Varian retained his office until 
1841, when he was succeeded by Robert H. Morris, who 
was elected by the still triumphant democratic party. 

On the 23d of April, 1841, the attention of the citizens 
had been aroused by a new event, which was fraught 
with interest to the mercantile portion of the community 
—the arrival from England of the steamships " Sirius" 
and " Great Western," the first ocean steamers ever as 
yet seen in the harbor of New York. This new bond 
of union between the Old World and the New was hailed 
with an enthusiasm scarcely equalled by that displayed 
on the late announcement of the success of the Atlantic 
cable, and schemes were at once projected by the busy 
speculators for the establishment of a line of steamers 
between the continents, which were realized a few years 
after by the Cunard and the Collins lines. 

The spring election of 1835 decided another important 
event in the annals of the city. The Manhattan Works 
had long since been voted a failure, but though various 
schemes had been from time to time devised for bringing 
water into the city from the Bronx and various other 
rivers in the suburbs, nothing had been accomplished, 
and the people had been forced to return to the wells 
and pumps of olden times. But the growth of the city 
had now rendered it impossible to be longer delayed, and 
after much consideration, a plan for constructing an 
aqueduct from the Croton River was approved by the 
corporation, and the question of "Water" or "No 
Water" submitted to the people at the following 
election, and decided in the affirmative by a large 
majority, though those were not wanting who bewailed 



(46 



HISTORY OF THE 




High Bridge — Crotou Aqueduct. 

the extravagance of the measure, and thought that the 
water which had served their ancestors would answer 
very Avell for the present generation. The popuLar ver- 
dict rendered, the Croton Aqueduct was at once com- 
menced at a distance of forty miles from the City Hall 
and about five miles from the Hudson River, where a 
dam was thrown across the Croton River, creating a 
pond five miles in length, covering an area of four hun- 
dred acres and containing 500,000,000 gallons of water. 
From this dam, the aqueduct proceeded, now tunnelling 
through solid rocks, then crossing valleys by embank- 
ments and brooks by culverts until it reached the Haiiem 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



ri7 



River, which it crossed by the magnificent High Bridge, 
built of stone, 1,450 feet long, with fourteen piers, eight 
of eighty feet and six of fifty feet span, one hundred and 
fourteen feet above tide water to the tt)p, at a cost of 
$900,000. From this bridge, at the foot of One Hun- 
dred and Seventy-fourth street, the aqueduct proceeded 
to the Receiving Reservoir at the corner of Eighty-sixth 
street and Sixth Avenue, covering thirty-five acres, and 
containing 150.000,000 gallons, whence the water was 
conveyed to the Distributing Reservoir on Murray Hill, 





11 Filtli Avenue, between Fortieth and Forty-second Streets. 



of a capacity of 21,000,000 gallons, and thence distri- 
buted l)y means of iron pipes through the city. The 
work progressed rapidly. On the 4th of July, 1842, the 
water was let into the reservoir, and the event was cele- 
brated by an imposing procession. But these immense 



748 HISTORY OF THE 

reservoirs have since grown too small for the increasing 
wants of the city ; and a mammoth reservou' has since 
been constructed in the Central Park of a capacity ex- 
ceeding any other in existence. 

Next came the Magnetic Telegraph, first opened to 
the New Yorkers through the New York, Philadelphia 
and Washington line, constructed in 1845 — the second 
in the United States, the first having been constructed 
in 1844 between Washington and Baltimore. In the 
following year, a line was opened between Boston and 
New York, and another the year after, between New 
York and Albany. Others followed in quick succession, 
and New York was soon placed within speaking distance 
of the chief cities of the Union. 

On the 19th of July, 1845, another great fire, second 
only in its ravages to that of 1835, bi'oke out in New 
street in the vicinity of Wall, and burned in a southerly 
direction to Stone street, laying waste the entire district 
between Broadway and the eastern side of Broad street, 
and consuming several million dollars' worth of pro- 
perty. The explosion of a saltpetre warehouse in Broad 
street during this conflagration, gave rise to the vexed 
question, "Will saltpetre explode?" which furnished 
food for some research and much mcri'iment to the 
savans of the day. 

In 1844, James Harper was elected mayor of the city 
by the native American party, aided by the support of a 
large number of whigs. In the elections of the two fol- 
lowing years, the democrats wei'e triumphant, electing 
William F. Havemeyer and A. H. Mickle to the mayor- 
alty. In 1847, the whigs regained the ascendency, elect- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 749 

iug their candidate, William V. Brady. The following 
year, William F. Havemeyer was reelected by his party. 
In the April election of 1849, the whigs were again snc- 
cessful, electing Caleb S. WoodhuU as mayor, and gain- 
ing a majority in both boards of the Common Council. 
In 1849, an amended charter was granted to the city, by 
which the day of the charter election Avas changed from 
the second Tuesday in April to the day of the general 
State election in November, the term of office to com- 
mence on the first Monday of the ensuing January. By 
the provisions of this charter, which was to take effect 
on the first of Jmie, 1849, the Mayor and Aldermen 
were to hold their offices for two years, while the Assist- 
ant Aldermen were to be elected annually as before. 
The city at this time consisted of eighteen wards, an 
additional one having been erected in 1845. Another 
was added in 1851, and the number was increased to 
twenty during the course of the following year. 

The mayoralty of Caleb S. WoodhuU was marked by 
the occurrence of the Astor Place Opera riot, an event 
which created as much excitement as did the notorious 
Doctors' Mob in its day. The native American party 
was at this time powerful in the city, and a strong pre- 
judice existed among the populace against every one 
branded with the stamp of foreign birth. To enter into 
a discussion of the causes or the justice of this hostility, 
would transcend the limits of the present work ; it suf- 
fices to say that, at this crisis, the open rivalry between 
Edwin Forrest, the favoi-ite American tragedian, and the 
English actor, Macready, was made the occasion for a 
popular outbreak, and that, on the night of the 10th of 



VoO 



EISTORY OF THE 



!May, 1849, T?bile the latter was performing Macbeth, in 
conipHance with an invitation, at the newly-erected 
Astor PlacD Opera-house, the mob surrounded the 
building and attempted to hinder the performance of the 
play. A scene of violence ensued ; the mob, incensed by 
opposition, threatened to burn the building, and the 
mayor was finally compelled, as a last resort, to call out 
the inilitary and order them to fire upon the rioters. 
The volley was succeeded by a sharp encounter, in which 
the mob assailed the soldiers in turn, wounding nearly 
one hundred and fifty of their number, and the contest 




Interior of Castle Garden in former times. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 751 

did not end until several valuable lives had been sacri- 
ficed and a host of bitter feelings engendered which time 
has not yet been able to efface. 

On the expiration of his term of office, Mayor Wood- 
hull was succeeded by Ambrose C. Kingsland, the candi- 
date of the whig party. Many local events and changes 
occurred about the same time, which are of too recent a 
date to require more than a brief notice at our hands. 
Among these were the visit of Jenny Lind to the United 
States, and her first appearance in Castle Garden on the 
7th of September, 1850, the subsequent visits of Parodi, 
Catherine Hayes, Sontag, Grisi and many other Euro- 
pean celebrities ; the new municipal regulations imposed 
by the amended city charter of 1849, the trial of the 
caloric ship Ericssovi, the Grinnell expedition to the 
Arctic regions, and the arrival of the Hungarian patriot, 
Louis Kossuth, on the 5th of December, 1851. 

At the November election of 1852, Jacob A. Wester- 
velt was elected mayor by the democratic party. During 
the ensuing session of the Legislature, the city charter 
was again amended in some important particulars, among 
which was the institution of a Board of Councilmen, 
composed of sixty members, to be chosen respectively 
from the sixty districts into which the Common Council 
was directed to apportion the city, in the place of the 
long-standing Board of Assistant Aldermen. ,.\ 

The chief event which characterized the adm' -rtration 
of Mayor Westervelt, was the opening of the • .-^orld's 
Fair for the Exhibition of the Industry of all NatioVj, on 
the Mth of July, 1853, at the Crystal Palace in Reser- 
voir Square, near the Distributing Reservoir of the 



HISTORY OF THE 




Crystal Palace. 



Croton Aqueduct. The fairy-like Greelv cross of glass, 
bound together with withes of iron, with its gi-aceful 
dome, its arched naves, and its broad aisles and gal- 
leries, filled with choice productions of art and manu- 
factures gathered from the most distant parts of the 
earth — quaint old armor from the Tower of London, 
gossamer fabrics from the looms of Cashmere, Sevres 
china. Gobelin tapestry, Indian curiosities, stuffs, 
jewelry, musical instruments, carriages and machinei-y 
of home and foreign manufacture, Marochetti's colossal 
equestrian statue of Washington, Kiss's Amazon, Thor- 
waldsen's Christ and the Apostles, Powers' Greek slave, 
and a host of other works of art beside — will long be 
remembered as the most tasteful ornament that ever 
graced the metropolis. Contemporary with this, was 
Franconi's Hippodrome on Madison Square, covering an 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 753 

area of two acres of ground, an exotic from France, 
which flourished for a few months, then disappeared 
from the city. Scarcely more lasting was the existence 
of the beautiful Palace, which vanished in the short 
space of half an hour before the touch of the fiery 
element on the 5th of October, 1858, and fell, burying 
the rich collection of the Fair of the American Institute, 
then on exhibition within its walls, in a molten mass of 
ruins. 

On the 10th of December, 1853, the printing and pub- 
lishing establishment of the Messrs. Harper & Brothers, 
in Franklin Square, was destroyed by fire. This estab- 
lishment was the largest of its kind in the world, con- 
sisting of nine five-story buildings, and combining all 
the departments necessary for the manufacture of books. 
Over six hundred persons were thrown out of employ- 
ment by this conflagration, which destroyed more than 
a million of dollars. The enterprising proprietors im- 
mediately set to work to retrieve their loss, and in 1854 
erected a magnificent structure on the site of the burned 
buildings, covering half an acre, and extending from 
Franklin Square to Cliff Street. As this New York 
publishing house is the most extensive in the world, 
as well as the lai'gest and now the oldest in the city, the 
growth of which it serves well to illustrate, it deserves 
special mention at our hands. It had its origin in a 
small book and job printing office, estabUshed in 1817, 
by James Harper, the future mayor, and his brother 
John. In 1823 the third brother, Joseph "W. Harper, 
became a member of the firm, and in 1826 the fourth 
brother, Fletcher Harper, in turn entered the estab- 
lishment. At that time their printing office had become 
48 



754 HISTORY OF THE 

the largest in the cit}-, though it employed but fifty per- 
.sons and did its work on ten hand pi'esses. In 1825 the 
Messrs. Harper removed to 81 and 82 Cliff street, where 
they entered more largely upon the publication of books 
on their own account. At the time of the destruction 
of their establishment, they kept in constant operation 
thirty-three Adams' power-presses of the largest and 
best description, and their current publications numbered 
nearly sixteen hundred. The present establishment pre- 
sents an imposing appearance, with its ornamental iron 
fa9ade, five stories high, and one hundred and twenty 
feet wide on Franklin Square, opposite the old Walton 
House, the palace of the last century. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

1805—1860. 

Consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsbnrgli and Busliwick — Hard Winter — Mayor 
Wood's Administration — Gliarter of 1357 — Castle Garden transformed into an 
Emigrant Depot — Rachel and Tliackeray in New York^Tlie Central Bark — 
Amended Charter of 1857 — Burning of the Quarantine Buildings — Changes in the 
City — Ridgewood Water Works — Police Riots — Financial Distress — BurdeU Mur- 
der — Potter's Field — Broadway Tabernacle — Burning of Crystal Palace — Japanese 
Embassy — Great Eastern — Lady Franklin — The Prince of Wales in New York 
— Election of Mr. Lincoln. 

On the 1st of January, 1855, Mayor Westervelt was 
superseded in. office by Fernando Wood, the successful 
candidate of the democratic party. High hopes were 
founded on the new mayor, who inaugurated his rule by 
advocating numerous municipal reforms, among others 
the suppression of the Sunday liquor traffic and the pas- 
sage of the Prohibitory Liquor Law, which was enacted 
in the course of the winter, only to be declared unconsti- 
tutional the following season by the Court of Appeals. 
The contest respecting the sale of intoxicating beverages, 
which has been continued to our time, was fairly inaugu- 
rated, and assumed gigantic proportions at this epoch. 

The same date was marked by an event of great 
importance to the sister city of Brooklyn, which is so 
closely identified in interests with New York, tliat they 
can scarcely be separated in thought. On the first of 



756 HISTORY OF THE 

January, 1855, the act which had recently been j^assed 
for the consolidation of the cities of Brooklyn and Wil- 
liamsburg and the town of Bushwiek took effect, and 
Brooklyn suddenly leaped from the rank of the seventh 
to that of the third city in the Union, with a territory 
of twenty-two square miles, and a population of at least 
200,000. It had been incorporated as a city just twenty 
years before, with a population of 24,000. On the sarne 
territory the population had sextupled, and the wealth 
quintupled at this time. The new city was divided into 
two districts, the Eastern and the Western ; the former 
comprising the territory north and east of the Naval 
Hospital and Flushing avenue, or Williamsburgh and 
Bushwiek, and the latter the region south and west of 
the aforesaid boundaries, or Brooklyn proper. The two 
districts had separate fire departments and distinct 
machinery for the collection of taxes ; in aU other re- 
spects they were practically one, with their common 
centre at the Brooklyn City Hall. By a somewhat 
singular coincidence the first mayor of the newly-con- 
solidated city was George Hall, who had been the first 
mayor of Brooklyn after its original incorporation, 
twenty years before. Many of the citizens of Brooklyn 
desired its annexation to New York, and a biU for this 
purpose was ineffectually introduced the next year into 
the Legislature. 

The winter of 1855 was a hard one for the poor. 
Work was scarce and laborers plenty. Scarcely had 
the year opened when the cry of famine was raised. 
Thousands of suffering men, unable to find employ- 
ment or bread, gathered in the Park and elsewhere, and 
proclaimed their destitution, or paraded the streets with 



C I T Y F N E W Y R K . ( ( 

lianners and mottoes appealing for aid, and cases of 
want and starvation appeared on every side. New York 
is never deaf to such a cry. Measures for relieving the 
needy were at once devised, both by private individuals 
and the municipal authorities, ward relief associations 
were formed, soup kitchens were opened in every part 
of the city, where the hungry were fed from day to day, 
and a system of visitation was organized for the purpose 
of allaying the suffering. In the Sixth Ward alone, in 
one day in the month of January, nine thousand per- 
sons were fed by public charity ; not one of whom, it 
may be remarked m passing, was an American. In this 
connection we will mention an incident which manifests 
the rapid changes of the panorama before our eyes, so 
rapid, indeed, that we do not take note in the whirl how 
the marvels of to-day become the cast-off baubles of 
to-morrow. The residence of Dr. Townsend, on the 
corner of Thirty-Fifth street and Fifth avenue, was 
completed the same season, and was regarded as such an 
example of almost royal splendor, to use the language of 
the day, that it was thrown open for exhibition to the pub- 
lic for the benefit of the Five Points House of Industry. 
In this short lapse of time the so-called palace has been 
ruthlessly demolished to make room for a still more 
sumptuous structure ; and doubtless the latter will ere 
long be eclipsed by some private dwelUng of still gi'eater 
magnificence. 

The year 1855 was an uneventful one to New York. 
Various schemes were agitated for the erection of a new 
Post-office, — the old Dutch church in Nassau street 
having long been inadequate to the needs of the city, — 
an up-town Post-office and a new City HaU; but nothing 



758 HISTORY OF THE 

was done. The summer witnessed the transformation 
of Castle Garden into an emigrant depot, a change 
which at first seemed desecration, for the old fort at the 
foot of the Battery, with its beautiful grounds, was lial- 
lowed to the people by many associations, and was not 
even yet regarded as too far off from the private resi- 
dences for a place of public resort. Castle Clinton was 
first granted to the city of New York by an act of 
March 16, 1790, it having been previously reserved in 
the Montgomerie Charter. After tlie war of 1812, being 
no longer needed for military purposes, it was used for 
many years as a place of public amusement. There the 
annual fairs of the American Institute were held, and 
there circuses, meuageries, concerts, theatricals and 
operas followed each other, from the Chinese Junk to 
Bosio, Sontag, Alboni, Jenny Lind and Grisi. But the 
necessities of the case were urgent ; New York had be- 
come the great centre of immigration, and it was imper- 
atively necessary that some place should be provided 
where these ignorant and friendless foreigners would 
find a safe refuge on first reaching our shores. After 
much debate, therefore. Castle Garden was surrendered 
to the Commissioners of Emigration, who adapted it to 
its new purpose, and on the 1st of August, 1855, it was 
opened for the reception of the emigrants, who were 
landed there direct from quarantine. 

In the latter part of the same summer the great 
tragedienne, Rachel, arrived at New York, where she 
first appeared at the Metropohtan Theatre, and was 
received with unbounded applause. In the autumn of 
the same year Thackeray reached this city, and delivered 
his first lecture, on George I., at Dr. Chapin's church, on 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 750 

Broadway, between Spring and Prince streets, on the 
1st of November. 

In the winter of 1855—56, an important improvement 
was made in the streets of the city by extending Canal 
street from Centre street across Baxter to Mnl-berry 
street, where it intersected Walker street, and widening 
the latter street twenty-five feet to East Broadwa}-. 
Park Place and Duane street were likewise wiilened. 
A broad thoroughfare was thus made across the city, 
which was also greatly improved by the extension of the 
Bowery and Chambers street. 

By far the most important event of 1856 was the 
establishment of the Central Park, now the pride of the 
city. The need of a large public park had long been 
felt, and various schemes had been mooted from time to 
time for supplying the deficiency ; but these had all 
proved abortive, and as the city extended and became 
denser, its breathing-places diminished ratlier than in- 
creased ; for the Battery was transformed into an emi- 
grant depot, and tlie City Hall Park, crowded with 
public buildings, in noway served the purpose for 
which it was originally designed. In the beginning of 
the century, as we have already narrated, a plan was 
set on foot to surround the Fresh Water Pond with 
ornamental grounds, and thus to secure to New York 
a natural feature of rare beauty possessed by few cities — 
a magnificent lake in its midst ; but the scheme met 
with no support, and the crj'stal Kolck, instead of being 
preserved, was gradually filled up and became the site 
of the Five Points district, the most noisome spot in the 
city. Later, when Gouverneuf Morris laid out a map of 
the upper part of the city, lie planned a pai'k containing 



760 HISTORY OF THE 

three hundred acres, to be bounded by Twenty-third 
and Thirty-fourth streets, and Third and Eighth 
Avenues ; but these spacious grounds dwindled down in 
reahty to Madison Square with its six acres, while the 
remainder became the fashionable quarter of the town. 
A few other parks were scattered over the city — 
Tompkins Square, Gramercy Park, Stuyresant Park, 
Union Square, Washington Square, and St. John's 
Park ; but these were altogether insufficient for the 
wants of the j^opulation, being simple promenades, in 
some cases private, and possessing no facilities for 
riding or driving. It was of the utmost importance to 
secure the unappropriated lands of the city for this 
purpose while there was time. On the 5th of AprU, 
1851, Mayor Kiugsland had made a report to the Board 
of Aldermen, urging the selection of a site for a pubhc 
park. This was referred to the Committee on Lauds 
and Places, who concurred in the report and recom- 
mended the purchase of Jones's Wood, a fine ti-act of 
forest land extending along the East River, and 
bounded by the Third Avenue and Sixty-sixth and 
Seventy-fifth streets. Their report was adopted by the 
Common Council, and an application was made to the 
Legislature for authorization to secure the lands in 
question, which was granted, and the Jones's Wood 
Bill was passed July 11, 1851. 

This was but a first step. Various objections were 
raised to the proposed site, Ijoth on account of its 
limited space and the monotonous character of the 
ground, and its situation at the extreme east of the city, 
and a more central location was urged. On the 5th of 
August, 1851, the Board of Aldermen appointed 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 761 

Commissioners to examine and report upon the merits 
of the different sites suggested. After mature deUb- 
eration, the Committee made choice of a tract of land 
bounded by Fifty-ninth and One Hundred and Sixth 
streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues, about two and a 
half miles long by half a mile wide, and comprising 
""^tVo acres. The report was approved, and on the 
23d of July, 1853, the Legislature passed an act 
authorizing the purchase of the Central Park. On the 
same day, the friends of the Jones's Wood Parlv 
obtained a similar act in favor of their chosen location, 
the previous one having remained a dead letter on 
account of some technical flaw ; and thus the matter 
stood until the following spring, when the Jones's Wood 
Act was finally repealed. 

On the 17th of November, 1853, five Commissioners 
of Estimate and Appraisement were appointed by the 
Supreme Court to take land for the Central Park. 
They completed their labors in the summer of 1855, 
valuing the land at $5,398,695 ; and on the 5th of 
February, 1856, their report was confirmed by the 
Common Council and the purchase consummated, 
$1,658,395 of the amount being levied on the owners 
of the adjacent property. The State Arsenal and 
grounds were afterwards purchased at a cost of 
$275,000. 

At first sight, the spot selected seemed an unpromising 
one. The land was as wild and uncultivated as in the 
days of the aborigines of Manhattan. The surface was 
gi-eatly divei'sified, presenting a succession of rocky hiUs 
and marshy vaUeys, covered with brush and brambles, 
with a sprinkling of fine trees, and intersected by a few 



7G2 HISTORY OF THE 

little rivulets that took their rise among the marshes on 
the west and flowed eastward to the river. Yet it was 
admirably designed by Nature for its purpose, lacking 
nothing but trees, a want that could be supplied by 
time, and susceptible of becoming a spot of rare beauty 
in the hands of a skillful landscape gardener, as time has 
abundantly proved. In area it equaled Hyde Park 
and Kensington Gardens united, and was seven times 
larger than all the public parks and squares of New 
York combined. As its name indicated, it was central 
in location ; lying at an equal distance from the East 
and North Rivers and the Battery and Kingsbridge, 
the new park embraced gi'ound rich in historic associa- 
tion — McGowan's Pass, the scene of the battle of 
Harlem Plains, the old Boston post road of the early 
Dutch settlers, and the fortilications of the War of 1812. 
Yet fully as we realize the utility of our beautiful Central 
Park at this day, and disposed as we are to increase rather 
than lessen it, the citizens of that time were not equally 
alive to its importance ; bitter complaints were made of 
the exorbitant sum expended in the purchase of such 
an unnecessary extent of land, and such earnest 
endeavors were made to narrow its limits, that the 
Common Council at last passed a resolution to petition 
the Legislature to reduce the size of the new park. 
This resolution, hapjjily, was vetoed by the mayor. 

On the 19th of May, 1856, the Common Council 
adopted an ordinance creating the Mayor and Street 
Commissioner, Commissioners of the Central Park. The 
latter immediately invited a number of private citizens, 
distinguished for their taste and knowledge, to attend 
the meetings, and form a Consulting Board. In pursu- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



703 



,^.^^;4^ 5l,i I III' 




CITYOF NEW YORK. 7G5 

ance with this invitation the ConsuUiiig Board met, for 
the first time, on the 29th of May. 1856, and elected 
Washington Irving president. Under the united super- 
intendence of these bodies, preUminary surveys were 
made, and a plan offered by Lieutenant Viele, under 
whose superintendence the survey had been made, was 
adopted, though nothing further was done for the want 
of the necessary appropriations. To meet this exigency, 
on the 17 th of April, 1857, the control of the Park was 
placed by the Legislature in the hands of a Board of 
Commissioners, not to exceed eleven in number, who 
were to hold office for five years, and who were empow- 
ered to expend the moneys to be raised by the issue of 
stock by the Common Council. Upon consideration, the 
plan already adopted was abandoned by the new Com- 
missioners, who advertised for fresh plans, and in April, 

1858, adopted that of Messrs. Olmstead and Vaux, and 
at once commenced its execution. On the 2d of April, 

1859, an act was passed by the Legislature extending 
the Northern boundary of the Pai'k to One Hundred 
and Tenth street, and thus including a high hill west 
of McGowan's Pass, which embraces a view of the whole 
island. In 1864, the Park was again enlarged by the 
annexation of Manhattan Square, a rugged tract of un- 
improved ground, covering a space of 19jVo" ficres, and 
bounded by Seventy-seventh and Eighty-first streets, 
and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. The whole area of the 
Park was thus increased to 862^Vo- acres. The largest 
of the London parks has but 403 acres. 

Under the skillful and judicious management of the 
Board of Commissioners, to whom too much praise can- 
not be awarded, the admirable plan of Messrs. Olmstead 



766 IIISTOKY OF THE 

and Vaux was executed as rapidly as possible, and the 
barren waste transformed into pleasure grounds almost 
unrivaled in natural and artistic beauty, and which are 
of inestimable value to the citizens of Xew York. Free 
alike to all classes, with no restriction save that of good 
conduct, the poor man, who has no other escape from 
brick walls, here finds a place where he can drink health 
and life from the pure breezes in the moments snatched 
from labor, and enjoy the beauties about him far more 
than his richer brethren who whirl past him in gilded 
carriages along the gay drive ; for pedestrians alone can 
appreciate the Park to the full ; the shaded by-paths, 
sheltered nooks, and fascinating views of the romantic 
Ramble are accessible to them alone ; and the riders 
only obtain a bird's-eye view of the place, without ever 
penetrating to its inner arcana. 

At present, the Park is well-nigh completed, as far 
as the general design is concerned. Time will heighten 
its beauties and complete its collections. The cost to 
the city, thus far, has been over $15,000,000, and never 
was money more judiciously expended. By successive 
acts of the Legislature, the entire control of the reser- 
voirs, and the laying out and grading of the adjacent 
streets, has been given to the Pai*k Commissioners, who 
are thus enabled to carry out their plans untrammeled. 
The Park, itself, is too well known to require more than 
the briefest description at our hands ; we will only 
attempt to specify a few general features. It is virtually 
divided into two parks, an upjier and a lower, by the 
old Croton reservoir, covering an area of thirty acres 
in the centre of the grounds, and the new reservoir, just 
above the latter, which comprises one hundred and six 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



767 



g "f 




CITY OF NEW YORK. 709 

acres. The lower park is most highly finished ; here are 
found the arsenal, now vised as a museum ; the lake, cov- 
ered by gondolas and filled with swans in summer, and 
the resort of merry skaters in winter ; the mall, the 
water-terrace and fountain, the magnificent bridges, 
with their exquisite sculpture, the shaven lawns, the 
music-pavilion, and the bewildering Ramble, with its 
cave. The upper park is wilder, and more in the state 
of nature : here are the lofty hill of which we have 
spoken, the fortifications and block-house of 1812 ; Har- 
lem Lake, and two smaller sheets of water ; Mount St. 
Vincent, which was occupied, for more than three years, 
as a soldiers' hospital during the late war ; the rugged 
cliffs, and the broad meadows. At the west, on Manhat- 
tan Square, is the Museum of Natural History ; at the 
east, the ]\Ietropolitan Museum of Art. The number of 
animals, both foreign and domestic, that are already in 
the Park, is considerable ; stately Cape bnii'aloes, timid 
deer, and placid southdown sheep, with abundance of 
rabbits and squirrels, are met in the grounds. A fine 
collection of birds and animals form the nucleus of the 
proposed zoological gardens. Statues, also, are in pro- 
cess of erection. Choice shrubs and flowers everywhere 
adorn the grounds, through which wind over ten miles 
of carriage-road and thirty miles of walks ; in short, 
everything gives promise that the Central Park will, in 
time, be unsurpassed by any public park in existence. 

On the 7th of April, 1856, considerable interest was 
awakened by the launch of the Adriatic, the largest 
steamship as yet afloat. In the same spring, a well- 
known landmark passed away from New York ; namely, 
the Brick Church in Beekman street, which, erected in 
49 



770 HISTORY OF THE 

1767-G8, on the edge of the Swamp, or what was 
formerly a portion of the estate of Jacob Leisler, had 
reared its tall spire there for nearly a century. On the 
25th of May, 1856, service was held for the last time in 
the old church, which was soon afterwards replaced by 
the Times Building, one of the finest structures in the 
city. 

The great popular excitement of the spring of 1856 
was the assault on Senator Sumner by Preston Brooks, 
which roused the indignation of the whole North, and 
created great excitement in New York City. This 
excitement found expression in an immense mass 
meeting at the Broadway Tabernacle, the largest ever 
held in that well-known hall. George Griswold was 
chosen president, and a large number of the most 
influential citizens acted as vice-presidents. Speeches 
were made and resolutions adopted expressive of 
sympathy for Mr. Sumner, and indignation for the 
outrage which he had suffered. 

In July, 1856, the first statue of modern New York 
was setup ; namely, the equestrian statue of Washington, 
at the lower end of Union Square. Since the demoli- 
tion of the Pitt statue in Wall street and the statue of 
George III. on the Bowling Green, the public places of 
the city had remained unadorned by woi-ks of art. A 
resolution was adopted by the Common Council in the 
same month, authorizing the erection of a monument 
to General Worth, whose remains had been brought 
from San Antonio at the close of the summer of 1855, 
by the city, and deposited in Greenwood Cemetery. 
The triangle formed by the intersection of Fifth 
Avenue and Broadway, west of Madison Square, was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. TTl 

selected as the site of the monument. Even at that 
late date, this location was regarded as far out of town, 
almost beyond the inhabited part of the city. 

On the 31st of Julj^, 1856, the ground was broken 
for the construction of the Ridgewood Water Works, 
designed to supply the city of Brooklyn with water. 
The sources of supply were a number of small lakes, 
nineteen miles distant, the chief reservoir being in the 
vicinity of Cypress Hill Cemetery, six miles from 
Brooklyn. This great public work was completed 
within three years. The inauguration of the Ridge- 
wood Water Works was celebrated in an imposing 
manner on the 28th of April, 1859. The reservoir 
covered twenty-seven acres, and contained 173,000,000 
gallons of water. 

The year 1857 was a disastrous one to New York ; 
a year of mob rule ; beginning with civil strife and end- 
ing with financial ruin. Many defects in the city 
charter called for remedy, and the growing abuses in 
the municipal government of New York, proceeding 
from the ignorant majority that controlled the elections, 
seemed to demand that certain powers should be trans- 
ferred from the keeping of the city to that of the state, 
which was so deeply interested in the welfare of the 
great American Metropolis. It began to be more and 
more realized that there were two peoples in New 
York, the property owners, or bona-fide citizens, who 
were for the most part respectable, orderly, and law- 
abiding men ; and the poor and illiterate masses, chiefly 
of foreign birth, who owned scarce a rod of land or a 
dollar, yet who ruled the city by their votes, and 
elected to office only such men as would pander to their 



772 HISTORY OF THE 

vices. Nevertheless, the latter class represented and 
still represents New York City in the eyes of many ; a 
most unjust judgment. 

In the spring of 1857, the State Legislature passed 
several bills relating to New York, and amended the 
charter in several important particulars. The charter 
and state elections, which had hitherto been held on the 
same day, were separated ; the first Tuesday in Decem- 
ber being fixed as the date of the former. The comp- 
troller, as well as the Corporation Council and mayor, 
were to be elected by the people. The city was 
divided into seventeen aldermanic districts, from each 
of which an aldei-man was to be elected by the people 
once in two years. The Board of Councilmen was 
composed of six members elected annually from each 
senatorial district, or twenty-four in all. The Alms- 
house and Fire Departments remained unchanged ; and 
the superintendence of the Central Park was given to a 
Board, to be appointed by the State Government. The 
most important innovation, however, was the transfer of 
the Police Department from the city to the state. By 
the Metropolitan Police Act, a pohce district was 
created, comprising the counties of New York, Kings, 
West Chester and Richmond ; and a Board of Commis- 
sioners was instituted, to be appointed for five years by 
the governor and Senate, to have the sole control of 
the appointment, trial and management of the police 
force, which was not to outnumber two thousand, and 
to appoint the chief of police and the minor officers. 
This Board was composed of five members. The Police 
Commissioners were to secure the peace and protection 
of the city, to ensure quiet at the elections, and to 



C I T Y O F X E W Y R K . 7(0 

look after the public health. The first members of the 
Board appointed were Simeon Draper, General James 
W. Nye and Jacob Chadwell, of New York; James S. 
T. Stranahan, of Kings County ; and James Bowen, of 
Westchester County ; the mayors of New York and 
Brooklyn being members ex-officio. 

This was the signal for war. Mayor Wood, who had 
strenuously opposed the action of the Legislature, an- 
nounced his determination to test the constitutionality 
of the law to the uttermost, and to resist its execution ; 
he refused to surrender the police property or to dis- 
band the old police ; and for some time the city wit- 
nessed the curious spectacle of two departments — the 
Metropolitan Police under the commissioners, and the 
Municipal Police under the mayor — vieing for mastery. 
After exhausting all the resources of the law to evade 
obedience to the act, the mayor and municipal govern- 
ment finally caused it to be referred to the Court of 
Appeals. Before the final decision came, blood was 
spilled. On the IGth of June, matters were brought to 
a crisis by the forcible ejection from the City Hall of 
Daniel D. Conover, who had been appointed street 
commissioner by Governor King, to fill the vacancy 
caused by the death of the former incumbent. The 
deputy commissioner meanwhile claimed his right to 
hold the office, and a third competitor, Charles Devlin, 
had been appointed by Maj^or Wood, who claimed the 
appointing power. Mr. Conover immediately obtained 
a warrant from the recorder to arrest the mayor on 
the charge of inciting a riot, and another from Judge 
Hoffman for the violence offered him personally, and, 
armed with these documents, and attended by fifty of 



(7-i HISTORY OFTHE 

the Metropolitan Police, returned to the City Hall. 
Captain Walling of the police at first attempted in vain 
to gain an entrance with one warrant. Mr. Conover 
followed with the other, but met with no better success. 
The City Hall was filled with armed policemen, who 
attacked the new comers, joined by the crowd without. 
A fierce affray ensued, during which twelve of the 
policemen were severely wounded. The Seventh Regi- 
ment chanced to be passing down Broadway, on its way 
to take the boat for Boston, whither it had been invited 
to receive an ovation. It was summoned to the spot, 
and its presence almost instantly sufficed to quell the 
riot. Mr. Conover, accompanied by General Sandford, 
entered the City Hall and served the writ on the mayor, 
who, seeing further resistance useless, submitted to 
arrest. The Seventh Regiment resumed its journey ; 
nevertheless the city continued in a state of intense 
excitement, and nine regiments were ordered to remain 
under arms Their services were not needed, however, 
and the Metropolitan Police Act being declared consti- 
tutional by the Court of Appeals on the first of July, 
the mayor seemed disposed to submit, and the disturb- 
ance was supposed to be ended. 

The city, however, had become greatly demoralized 
by this ferment. Amidst the civil strife of the pohce, 
the repression of crime had been neglected. An 
organized attempt seems to have been made by the 
ruffians of the city, to take advantage of the prevailing 
demoralization to institute mob rule, in order to rob and 
plunder under cover thereof. The national hoUday 
afforded an opportunity for this outbreak. On the 
evening of the 3d of July, the disturbance commenced 



C I T Y F N E W Y R K . /* O 

by an altercation between two gangs of rowilios, the 
one styled the Dead Rabbits or Roach Guard, from the 
Five Points District, and the other the Atlantic Guard 
or Bowery Boys, from the Bowery. The next morning 
the Dead Rabbits attacked their rivals in Bayard street, 
near the Bowery. The greatest confusion followed ; 
sticks, stones and knives were freely used on both 
sides, and men, women and children were wounded. A 
small body of policemen was dispatched to the spot, but 
it was soon driven off, with several wounded, and the 
riot Avent on. The rioters tore up paving stones, and 
seized drays, trucks and whatever came first to hand, 
wherewith to erect barricades ; and the streets of New 
York soon resembled those of Paris in insurrection. 
The greatest consternation and horror prevailed through 
the city ; the Seventh Regiment, which was still in 
Boston, was summoned home by telegraph, and several 
regiments of the city militia were called out ; but the 
riot was not quelled until late in the afternoon, when 
six men had been killed and over a hundred wounded. 
There was little fighting the next day until about seven 
in the evening, when a new disturbance broke out in 
Centre and Anthony streets. The militia were sum- 
moned to the spot, and dispersed the crowd. Several 
regiments were ordered to remain under arms, but no 
other troubles occurred. 

This riot aroused the citizens to the danger of the 
position, and intensified the prejudice against the Muni- 
cipal Police, which was accused of abetting the rioters. 
Vigorous measures were taken to organize the Metro- 
pohtan Police and secure its efficiency in spite of the 
factious resistance which still existed. The rioters were 



7(6 HISTORYOFTHE 

l)y no means quieted, however; and on the 13th and 
14th of July, another outbreak occurred among the 
Germans of the Seventeenth Ward, who had hitherto 
lield aloof from the difcturbance, which had been almost 
wholly confined to the Irish. The riot continued for two 
days, but was finally quelled b}^ the police without the 
assistance of the militia, who were under arms, awaiting 
the signal for action. The peace of the city was not 
again disturbed, and the elements of disorder were 
gradually restrained. 

The scourge of civil war was quickly succeeded by 
that of financial distress. In the autumn of 1857, a 
great monetary tempest swept over the United States. 
For several years, the country had been in the full 
tide of prosperity. Business was flourishing, com- 
merce prosperous, and credit undisputed both at 
home and abroad ; the granaries were overflowing 
with the yield of a luxuriant harvest, and everything 
seemed to prophesy a continued era of prosperity. In 
the midst of the sunshine, a thunderbolt fell upon the 
country. The credit system had been expanded to its 
utmost limits, and the slightest contraction was suf- 
ficient to cause the commercial edifice to totter on its 
foundation. The first blow fell on the 24th of August, 
1857, by the suspension of the Ohio Life and Trust 
Company, an institution hitherto regarded as above 
suspicion, for the enormous sum of seven millions of 
dollars. This was followed by the suspension of the 
Philadelphia banks, September 25, 26, succeeded by 
the general suspension of the banks of Pennsylvania, 
Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Rhode Island. 
An universal panic was the result ; the whole community 



C I T Y F N E W Y R K . ill 

seemed paralyzed by an utter lack of confidence ; the 
credit system fell to the ground, carrying with it the 
fortunes of half the merchants, and business was pros- 
trated. Failure followed failure. A run upon the banks 
forced the State Legislature to pass an act, October 13, 
14, authorizing a general suspension of specie payment 
by the banks for one year ; the city banks, however, 
resumed payment on the 24th of December. The Massa- 
chusetts banks suspended payment on the same day. 
The panic spread through the United States, and thence 
extended across the ocean, involving the European 
nations in the general ruin. The manufactories stopped 
work throughout the country, thus throwing thousands 
out of employment and reducing them to a state of utter 
destitution. A state of terrible suB'ering ensued. 
Crowds of the unemployed workmen gathered in the 
Park, clamoring for bread and threatening to procure 
it at all hazards, while many more, as needy and less 
demonstrative, perished silently of cold and starvation. 
For some time, serious danger was apprehended from 
the rioters, who accused the speculators of being at the 
root of the evil and threatened to break open the flour 
and provision stores and distribute the contents among 
the starving people. Prompt measures were taken 
by the corporation to alleviate the suffering and provide 
for the public safety. Many of the unemployed were 
set to work on the Central Park and other public 
works, soup-houses were opened throughout the city, 
and private associations were formed for the relief of 
the suffering ; but this aid failed to reach all, and many 
perished from sheer starvation, almost within sight of 
the plentiful harvests at the West, which lay moldering 



778 HISTORY OF THE 

in the granaries for the want of money wherewith to 
pay the cost of their transportation. Money abounded, 
yet those who had it dared neither trust it with their 
neighbor, or risk it themselves in any speculative ad- 
adventure ; but, falling into the opposite extreme of dis- 
trust, kept their treasure locked up in hard dollars in 
their cash-boxes as the only safe place of deposit. As 
spring advanced, business gradually revived, the manu- 
factories slowly commenced work on a diminished scale, 
the banks resumed payment one by one, and a mode- 
rate degree of confidence was restored ; yet it was long 
before business recovered its wonted vitality. The 
failures during the year numbered 5123, and the habil- 
ities amounted to $291,750,000. 

Various landmarks had been displaced in the course 
of the year. On the 29th of January, 1857, the re- 
maining portion of the Columbia College grounds, in 
Park Place, was sold, and the college was removed to 
Fiftieth street, between Fourth and Fifth Avenues. 
The fifteen lots of ground on which it stood were pur- 
chased for the sum of $576,350. 

On the 31st of January, the city was thrown into a 
state of unwonted excitement by the murder of Dr. 
Harvey Burdell, a well known dentist, residing at 31 
Bond street, who was found in his room frightfully 
mangled. Frequent as murders are in a great city like 
New York, the horror of the event and the pecuharly 
mystei'ious circumstances attendant thereon, absorbed 
the attention of all, and for days and weeks it continued 
the chief topic of conversation. Mrs. Cunningham, a 
widow who hired the house of Dr. Burdell, and who 
claimed to have been privately married to the murdered 



C I T Y F N E W Y R K . 7 rJ 

man, with two of her lodgers, Messrs. Eckel and Snod- 
grass, were deeply implicated by circumstances, and 
were arrested on suspicion ; but nothing was proved ; 
the parties were all acquitted, and the afiair remained 
enveloped in mystery. 

In April, 1857, the city government resolved to re- 
move the hundred thousand bodies that filled the 
Potter's Field, or pauper burial ground, from the city 
limits to Ward's Island, where seventy acres had been 
purchased for the purpose. Previous to 1823, the Wash- 
ington Parade grovmd had been devoted to this use, 
after which the ground now occupied by the distributing 
reservoir, on the corner of Forty-second street and 
Fifth Avenue, was taken for a pubhc cemetery. At 
the expiration of two years, the bodies were removed 
from both Washington and Reservoir Squares to the 
new Potter's Field, bounded by Forty-eighth and 
Fiftieth streets, and Fourth and Lexington Avenues. 
This site was granted by the city, in the following year, 
to the State Woman's Hospital, founded in 1857 by Dr. 
J. Marion Sims, and subsequently conducted by Dr. 
Thomas Addis Emmet, the grandson of the eminent 
lawyer of that name, whose monument forms one of 
the prominent features of St. Paul's Churchyard, and 
the grand-nephew of the celebrated Irish patriot. 

The same year witnessed the demolition of the old 
Broadway Tabernacle, the spacious hall of which had 
long been known as the usual scene of the large public 
assemblies, as well as the centre of congregational wor- 
ship in the lower part of the city. This building had 
been erected in 1835-36, by a society formed for the 
purpose of estabUshing a free church in that quarter. 



780 HISTORY OF THE 

The undertaking failed through lack of funds, and the 
church was sold in 1840. In 1845 it was purchased by 
the Tabernacle congregation, who continued to meet 
there, under the charge of the Rev. Joseph P. Thomp- 
son, until, April 23, 1857, it was finally closed. A new 
Tabernacle was erected by the Society on the corner 
of Sixth Avenue and Thirty-fourth street, which was 
dedicated on the 24th of April, 1859. 

On the first Tuesday in December, 1857, the date 
fixed by the amended charter for the annual election of 
municipal officers, Fernando Wood, who was again a 
candidate for the mayoralty, was defeated by Daniel F. 
Tiemann, a prominent merchant of the city. The new 
mayor was duly installed in office on the 1st of Jan- 
uary, 1858. 

A great revolution followed the stirring scenes of 
1857. The next few years were not marked by many 
events of municipal importance. The destruction of the 
quarantine buildings by the populace of Staten Island, in 
July, who were determined that their shores should no 
longer be appropriated to this purpose, occasioned great 
excitement, indeed, durhig the summer of 1858, and 
gave rise to a controversy which has continued tiU 
the present time. During this year the new State 
Arsenal was erected on the corner of Seventh Avenue 
and Thirty-fifth street ; and the Cooper Institute, built 
by Peter Cooper at the cost of over $600,000, for the 
purpose of furnishing free courses of lectures and other 
facilities for popular instruction, was thrown open to 
the public. The School of Design for Women, an 
admirable institution for the training of women in 
drawing, painting, wood-engraving, etc., found a home 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 781 

in this building. On the Ljth of August the corner- 
stone of the new Roman Catholic Cathedral on the 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Fiftieth street was laid by 
Archbishop Hughes, in the presence of an immense 
concourse of j^eople. This structure is in the form of 
a Latin cross, three hundred and twenty-eight feet long 
by one hundred and seventy-five feet wide, and is the 
largest church edifice in America, with a capacity for 
accommodation not exceeded by any Gothic building in 
the world. It was consecrated May 25, 1879. 

The great fire of the year was the conflagration, before 
mentioned, of the Crystal Palace, during the fair of the 
American Institute, which vanished like a dream on the 
5th of October, 1858, leaving naught but dust and 
ashes. On the 13th of February the hospital on 
Blackwell's Island had been burned, and the physicians, 
with five hundred patients, had barely escaped with 
their lives. The hospital was rebuilt in the course of 
the year. The City Hall also narrowly escaped burning 
on the occasion of the great cable celebration, of which 
we shall speak hereafter. 

On the 3d of July, 1858, the remains of President 
Monroe were removed from the cemetery in Second 
street, where they had long reposed, to Richmond, 
Virginia, escorted by the Seventh Regiment of New 
York. The regiment returned bearing the corpse of 
one of their beloved comrades. Lieutenant Hamilton, a 
descendant of Alexander Hamilton, who had died on 
the way, and whose remains were interred in Trinity 
church-yard. 

In the summer of 1860, the Atlantic Garden, at No. 
9 Broadway, formerly Burns's CofFee-House, the Faneuil 



782 HISTORY OF THE 

Hall of New York, was demolished to make room for 
Ijusiness, and a warehouse took the place of the an- 
cient Cradle of Liberty. 

During the years that intervened between the great 
financial crisis and the civil war, little occurred of pecu- 
liar interest to New York City ; which nevertheless was 
deeply stirred by national events, the Kansas troubles, 
the John Brown raid, and the great presidential elec- 
tion of 1860. Fernando Wood resumed the mayoralty 
at the opening of the latter year, having been elected 
in December, 1859. Despite the impending storms, 
the year 1860 seemed especially devoted to festivities. 
An unusual influx of distinguished personages from 
abroad visited the city, and were received with lavish 
hospitality. First came the members of the Japanese 
Embassy, who reached New York on the 16th of June, 
1860. The arrival of these strangers from an almost 
unknown country excited universal curiosity and inter- 
est. They were made the guests of the city during 
their stay, and entertained with all possible respect. 
On their arrival at Castle Garden, they were escorted 
by the National Guard to the Metropolitan Hotel, 
where preparations had been made for their reception ; 
at night a grand serenade was given them, and the 
hotel and surrounding buildings were illuminated in 
theu- honor. On the 18th of June a grand ball was 
given them at Niblo's Theatre. They spent some days 
in visiting the public institutions, and finallj- left the 
city and country on the 1st of July. Their visit was of 
peculiar significance, as being the first voluntarj' over- 
ture on the part of their hitherto secluded nation to 
open communication with the rest of the world, and 



C I T Y F X E W Y R K . 783 

deserved especial notice from New Yoi'k, the commer- 
cial metropolis of America. 

Close in the wake of the Japanese followed another 
visitor, in the shape of the mammoth ship, the Great 
Eastern, which had been recently built in England, and 
which still carries off the palm from all rivals in magni- 
tude. The huge vessel was moored for some weeks in 
the North River, where it was thrown open to the 
public, and was visited by thousands. 

During the same summer. Prince de Joinville visited 
New York, as well as Lady Franklin, who came to 
thank the New Yorkers for the interest and sympathy 
which they had evinced for her unhappy husband, and 
the generosity with which tliey had endeavored to learn 
his fate. The most important guest of the year, how- 
ever, was the Prince of Wales, who reached Newfound- 
land in July, and after making an extended tour through 
British America and the Western and Southern States, 
reached New York on the 11th of October, 1860. The 
visit to the American republic of the heir-apparent to 
the British throne was regarded as a peculiar mark of 
respect to the country, and did much to extinguish the 
feud that had been smoldering among Americans since 
the Wars of the Revolution and 1812. This feud had 
come to be a thing of tradition, well-nigh obliterated by 
time ; and the popular manners of the young prince, 
who travelled under the title of Baron Renfrew, as weU 
as the universal esteem felt for his mother, insured him 
a hearty welcome. He was met at Castle Garden by the 
First Division of the New York State Militia, number- 
ing over seven thousand ; after reviewing the troops, 
he was conducted to the City Hall, where he was received 



/84 HISTORY OF THE 

by the iimyor and Common Council, and was thence 
escorted to the Fifth Avenue Hotel, through streets 
lined with spectators, and gayly decorated with the 
united British and American flags. It is estimated that 
over two hundred thousand people participated in the 
ovation, yet such was the admirable order preserved 
that not a single disturbance occurred in this immense 
crowd. The next morning he breakfasted with the 
mayor, after which he visited several of the public 
institutions, together with the Central Park, where he 
planted an oak. On the same night a grand reception 
and ball were given him at the Academy of Music. On 
the next night he was entertained by a firemen's torch- 
light parade, one of the finest displays of the kind ever 
witnessed in the city. On Sunday he attended Trinity 
Church. The next morning, he quitted New York, on 
his way to Boston, where similar demonstrations awaited 
him. The friendly feeling awakened by the presence 
of this distinguished guest was hailed as an omen of 
future cordiality between America and England ; this 
cordiality, however, was soon doomed to be overshad- 
owed by the attitude of the latter in our great national 
struggle. 

The festivities were soon forgotten in the turmoil of 
the presidential election. New York became the scene 
of the wildest excitement. Mass meetings of the four 
parties in the field were held in the public halls, and 
torch-light processions paraded the streets, with numer- 
ous banners and devices. Foremost among the transient 
associations was the Wide-Awakes, a republican organ- 
ization, which sprang into existence for the occasion, 
and which attracted much attention by its originaUty 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 78-3 

The tide of excitement rau high. The democrats were 
stronger in numbers, and the repubUcans in wealth 
and influence. The other two parties, the "Douglas" 
and "Bell and Everett," were too small to weigh heavily 
in the scale. Secession was loudly discussed ; but was 
regarded by most as an idle threat, designed for political 
effect. The Southern students in the Medical College 
met, indeed, just before the election, and resolved, if 
the republican party were successful, to withdraw in 
a body and return to their homes ; but they were 
restrained, and the affair passed over. The election of 
Mr. Lincoln decided the contest. 



50 



CHAPTER XXm. 

1860—1861. 

Accession of Mr. Lincoln — Breaking out of the Insurrection — Peace Measures — 
Union Square Meeting — March of the New York Regiments — Union Defence 
Committee — Relief Association — Death of Colonel Ellsworth — "War Meetings — 
Volunteering — Union League Club — Sanitary Commission — Loyal Publication 
Society— The Draft — The Great Riot— The Sanitary Fair— The Presidential 
Election in New York — Hotel Buraiij, — Goldwin Smith — Fall of Richmond — 
Assassination of President Lincoln — His Obsequies in New York — Paid Eire 
Department — Death of Preston King — Academy of Design — Burning of Bamum's 
Museum — Atlantic Telegraph — Board of Health^Cholera in New York — De- 
molition of St. John's Park and Tammany Hall— Burning of Winter Garden — 
Conclusion. 

We are not presumptuous enough to undertake to give, 
in these few pages, a history of New York City during 
the great civil war. To do justice to this subject would 
require a volume double the size of the present one ; 
moreover, this epoch is stiU too near our own to belong 
to the domain of history. Not tiU the smoke of battle 
is cleared away, and the passions and prejudices aroused 
by this period of bitter contention effaced, can the story 
of this eventful era be fairly written. He would be 
cold and unimpassioned indeed that could be an actor 
in this intense drama and remain sufficiently unmoved 
thereby to narrate it without laying himself open to 
the charge of special pleading. The most that we can 
hope to do, in the brief space allowed us, is to chronicle 



CITY OF NEW TOKK. 787 

some of the pi-omineiit events that transpired in our 
city during this time, and to aid in storing up materials 
for the future historian.* 

Xew York City occupied a peculiar position at the 
outset of the conflict. It cannot be denied that her 
most fervent wish was peace. By her commercial posi- 
tion, as the great centre of the United States, she had 
been brought into constant intercourse with the people 
of the insurgent section, and entertained the most 
friendly feeling for them as individuals, much as she 
deprecated their public action. Again, she foresaw 
that in case of war she would not only lose heavily, 
but would also be obliged to bear the brunt of battle, 
and to furnish the money, without which it would be 
impossible to prosecute the conflict. It was natural, 
therefore, that her citizens should be unanimous in 
exhausting their resources to preserve peace, from 
different motives, it is true. We speak of New York 
collectively, but it must not be forgotten that there are 
two New Yorks : Pohtical New York, by which the 
city is usually judged, and which comprises its so-called 
rulers ; and Civil New York, made up of its native-born 
citizens, who, outnumbered by a foreign majority, honor 
the law of majorities, obedience to which they demand 
from others, pay the taxes that are imposed on them. 
and hold the wealth which enables the city to sustain 
its position as the western metropolis. Of these, the 



* In preparing this sketch the author has consulted, besides the journals of the 
day, Greeley's American Conflict, Moore's Rebellion Record, Harper's Pictorial 
History of the Rebellion, Lossing's Civil War in America, and the American Annual 
Cychpcedia, Mayor Opdyke's official documents, PoUard's Lost Cause, and various 
other current publications. 



788 HISTORY OF THE 

dominant i^arty, headed by Mayor Wood, desired peace 
at any price ; another large class, composed chiefly of 
the men of wealth, were willing to make all possible 
concessions to avoid the war, of which they knew that 
they must pay the cost ; and a third party believed that 
compromises enough had been made, and that the 
country should brave the issue. Yet all met on the 
common ground of the pi'esei'vation of the Union. 
Scarcely the shadow of a disposition was anywhere 
manifested to interfere with the existing institutions 
of the South, which many deplored, but which most 
regarded as a painful necessity, beyond the reach of 
outside interference. Therefore, when, after Mr. Lin- 
coln's election, menacing events followed thick and fast. 
New York at first put forth her efforts to avert the 
tempest. Floyd's huge robbery, the withdrawal of the 
South Carolina senators, the secession of their state, 
followed by that of others, and the seizure of the public 
property, caused universal consternation ; yet men still 
clung to the belief that the difficulty would be settled. 
The attemjited secession of the states, indeed, had drawn 
in a few of the ultra members of the democratic party, 
among whom was the mayor, who, on the 7th of Jan- 
uary, 1861, sent a message to the Common Council 
setting forth the advantages that would accrue to Xew 
York should she also secede from the Union and become 
a free city. It is just to say, however, that he did not 
formally recommend secession. The suggestion was 
scouted with indignation ; why, it was asked, should 
not Manhattanville, Yorkville, and Harlem secede in 
turn, and where would be the end ? Four days after, 
on the 11th of January, the State Legislature passed a 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 789 

8eries of resolutions, tentlcriiig to the President "what- 
ever aid in men and money might be required to enable 
him to enforce the laws and uphold the authority of 
the Federal Government," and on the 15th inst. !Major- 
General Sandford offered the services of the whole 
First Division of the Militia of New York in support of 
the United States authority. 

New York City, nevertheless, determined to make 
one more effort to avert the horrors of war. A memo- 
rial in favor of compromise measures was circulated. 
On the 18th of January a large meeting of merchants 
was held at the Chamber of Commerce, where a similar 
memorial was adopted, which was sent to Washington 
in February, with forty thousand names appended. On 
the 28th of January an immense Union meeting was 
held at the Cooper Institute, when it was resolved to 
send three commissioners to the conventions of the 
people of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 
Louisiana and Mississippi, to confer with the delegates 
of these states, assembled in convention, in regard to 
the measures best calculated to restore the peace and 
integrity of the Union. The Crittenden Compromise 
was suggested in these meetings as a basis of pacifi- 
cation. 

On the 22d of January- the chief of the Metropolitan 
Police, John A. Kennedy, seized thirty-eight cases of 
muskets which were about to be shipped for Georgia, 
and deposited them in the State Arsenal of the city. 
Information of the seizure was at once sent to the con- 
signees, who appealed to Governor Brown, of Georgia. 
Mr. Toombs, who was at Milledgeville, at once dis- 
patched a menacing telegram to Mayor Wood, demand- 



790 HISTORY OF THE 

ing the cause of this act. The mayor apologized in reply, 
protesting that he had no authority over the police. 
Governor Brown retaliated by seizing two brigs, two 
barks, and a schooner, which were lying in the harbor, 
and sent word that they would be held till the arms were 
released. Governor Morgan referred the owners to the 
United States Courts for redress. They were soon 
informed, however, that the arms had been surrendered 
to their agent, G. B. Lamar, whereupon Governor 
Brown released the vessels, which quickly left the har- 
bor. Some delay, nevertheless, having arisen in the 
release of the arms, the governor seized three other 
vessels, all owned in New York, and held them till the 
arms were actually in the jiossession of the claimants. 
These arms were said to belong in part to private indi- 
viduals, and in part to the State of Alabama, and were 
supposed to be designed for the use of the insurgent 
government. 

The end of this phase of the contest soon came. 
State after state seceded, fortress after fortress was 
seized, armies were formed throughout the South, and 
a Provisional Government was oi-ganized at Montgom- 
ery, which, Febiniary 8th, adopted a Constitution for 
the Confederate States of America, and elected Jeffei'- 
son Davis, President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice- 
President. Meanwhile Abraham Lincoln was inaugu- 
rated President of the United States, at Washington, 
March 4, 18G1. At length the blow fell. Fort Sum- 
ter, where Major Anderson and his little band had been 
for mouths beleaguered by the Confederate forces un- 
der General Beauregard, was evacuated on the 14th of 
April. It was owing to the gallantry of a sergeant of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



(91 



tlie New York police force, Peter Hart, who liad for- 
merly served with Major Anderson in Mexico, that the 
American flag remained unfurled to the end over the fort. 
When, in the thickest of the fight, the flag was finally 
shot down, after having been hit nine times, Hart vol- 
unteered to raise it again, and, climbing a temporary 
stafl: amidst a blinding hail of shot and shell, nailed the 
torn lianner fast, and descended in safety. Sergeant 
Jasper had immortalized himself of old by a similar act 
of daring, close by, at Fort Moultrie. Among the his- 
toric memories of the time, it is worthy of record that 
a New Yorker saved the Stars and Stripes from falling 
in the first historic battle of the great war, as a New 
Yorker, Lieutenant De Peyster, was the first to raise 
them anew over the Confederate Capital. 

The uprising that followed the fall of Fort Sumter 
was unparalleled. The peaceful attitude of New York 
had led it to be supposed that she would cast her for- 
tunes with the South, or at all events stand aloof from 
the contest. Never was there a greater mistake. The 
crisis come, she nerved her energies to meet it, and 
from that hour to the close of the struggle, her citizens 
never faltered or withheld their blood and treasure. 
Those who had been most anxious for peace now vied 
with each other in asserting their determination to pre- 
serve the Union, and the mayor, who just before had: 
urged the advantages of secession, issued a proclamation 
calling on all the citizens to unite in defence of the coun- 
try. On the day after the evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
President Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for 
seventy-five thousand men, to serve for three months, 
the quota for New York being thirteen thousand. The 



792 HISTORY OF THE 

New York Legislature instantly responded by passing 
an act authorizing the enlistment of thirty thousand 
men, for two years instead of three months, and appro- 
priating three million dollars for the war. The State, 
nevertheless, like the country, was almost defenceless ; 
its arms had rusted in the half a centuiy of peace that 
had gone by, and of its twenty thousand regular militia, 
only eight thousand had muskets or rifles fit for service, 
while its whole supply of field-pieces amounted to but 
one hundred and fifty. Steps were taken to supply 
the deficiency ; the regiments prepared to mai'ch ; the 
recruiting offices that were everywhere opened were 
seen thronged with thousands eager to enlist, and those 
were envied who were first accepted. And these volun- 
teers did not come from the dregs of the people ; the 
majority were young men of family and fortune, who 
held it an honor to serve as private soldiers in their 
country's cause. The Seventh Regiment, which was 
foremost in the field, is well-known as being composed 
of the best citizens of New York, and many other of 
the militia regiments claimed to be its rivals. Besides 
the regular militia, numerous volunteer organizations 
were formed under different names. The national flag 
was everywhere displayed, on public buildings and 
private residences, steamboats and railroad cars. The 
veteran General, Winfield Scott, was Commander-in- 
chief of the United States Army. 

The enthusiasm was general throughout the Northern 
States, which vied with each other in sending troops to 
the defense of the menaced National Capitol. Five 
Pennsylvania companies, which had been hurried for- 
ward by Governor Curtin from the interior of the State 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 793 

with )ut waiting to organize them into a regiment, were 
the lirst to reach the spot. On the 18th of April the 
Sixth Massachusetts Regiment marched through New 
Yorlv on its way to Washington, and received a most 
enthusiastic welcome. " Through New York the march 
was triumphal," Avrote Governor Andrew. Yet it had 
been predicted that the regiment would be attacked 
on its way through the city. 

On the next day, the 19th, New York's favorite regi- 
ment, the Seventh, under the command of Colonel 
Marshall Leflferts, which had been drilling night aud 
day, was to set out for Washington. At an early hour 
the sidewalks were densely thronged, and the streets 
seemed literally lined with banners. The moment was 
a thrilling one ; the city, that had known nought but 
peace within the memory of the present generation, 
was on the brink of a terrible war with those whom she 
had held as brethren, and was about to send forth her 
cherished sons to encounter its nameless perils. It was 
the first plunge ; and never, perhaps, did the emotions 
of the ensuing terrible years equal the intensity of that 
moment. The regiment formed in Lafayette Place in 
front of the Astor Library, about four o'clock in the 
afternoon. The surrounding windows, housetops, and 
even trees, were thronged with enthusiastic spectators. 
Just before they were ready to move, intelligence was 
received that three of their guests of the day before had 
been massacred on their way through Baltimore. An 
electric thrill ran through the crowd and steeled all 
hearts with a determination to avenge their deaths. 
Forty-eight rounds of ball cartridge were served out to 
the members of the regiment, and having formed in line. 



794 HISTORY OF THE 

they marched through Fourth street to Broadway, 
down this great thoroughfare to Cortlandt street, and 
thence to Jersey City Ferry, and crossing the river, 
commenced their journey to Washington. Never had 
New York seemed gayer than on this sunny day, with 
hundreds of thousands of bright colored flags floating in 
the breeze, and hundreds of thousands of people assem- 
bled to take farewell of their departing brethren. The 
brilliant display that had lately greeted the Japanese 
Embassy and the Prince of Wales paled before this 
demonstration ; but the holiday garb was only external, 
and all hearts were filled with sadness at the the fratri- 
cidal war, the first scene of which was passing before 
them. Here we leave the gallant Seventh, the story 
of whose six days' march to the National Capitol has 
been so graphically described by one who speedily gave 
his life in defense of his country. 

. On the same day a meeting of the merchants of New 
York was held at the Chamber of Commerce, at which 
resolutions indorsing the action of the Government, and 
urging a blockade of all the Southern ports, were 
unanimously adopted, and a large committee of promi- 
nent capitalists was appointed to make arrangements 
for placing the nine million dollars still untaken of the 
Government loan. The announcement having been 
made that several of the regiments preparing to leave 
were embarrassed for want of funds, a collection wa? 
instantly taken up, and twenty-one thousand dollars 
were raised in ten miiautes. 

On the evening of the day that President Lincoln 
had issued his call for troops, several gentlemen had 
met at the house of R. H. McCurdy, and resolved on 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 795 

measures for the support of the government. They 
determined to call a public meeting of all parties to aid 
in sustaining the government in this crisis, and ap- 
pointed a committee, consisting of a large number of 
influential citizens, to make the necessary arrangements. 
The members of this committee were notified of their 
appointment the next day, by a circular, and requested 
to meet at the Chamber of Commerce, on the corner 
of William and Cedar streets. A call was at once issued 
for a great mass meeting at Union Square, to be com- 
posed of men of all parties who were desirous of pre- 
serving the Union. 

The great Union Square meeting will long be remem- 
bered. For the time, as complete unanimity of senti- 
ment prevailed as could ever be achieved among a 
million of people. All diffei'ences of opinion seemed 
hushed for the time, and the only thought was the 
common safety. The largest concourse of people 
that had ever been witnessed in New York assem- 
bled on the afternoon of the 20th of April, in Union 
Square. All the places of business in the city were 
closed. Four stands had been erected for the speak- 
ers ; but these proved insufficient, and those who 
were unable to obtain a place within hearing of 
the principal speakers, were addressed from the bal- 
conies, and even from the roofs of the houses. More 
than a hundred thousand persons were supposed to 
have been present. Major Anderson and his officers 
were there, with the tattered flag of Sumter. The 
leaders of all parties joined in the demonstration ; dem- 
ocrats and republicans, conservatives and radicals, all 
were united in the first flush of excitement. The four 



796 HISTORY OF THE 

presidents of the meeting were, John A. Dix, Ex-Gov- 
ernor Fish, Ex-Mayor Havemeyer, and Moses H. Grin- 
nell. Among the numerous speakers were Daniel S. 
Dickinson, Robert J. Walker, David S. Coddington, 
Professor Mitchell and Colonel Baker, both of whom 
were doomed to die in defence of their principles, and 
Mayor Wood, who, on his own responsibility, pledged 
the corporation of New York to fit out the brigade 
which Colonel Baker had offered to raise. The speeches 
were of the most stirring character, a list of patriotic 
resolutions was adopted, and a Committee of Safety was 
appointed, composed of some of the most distinguished 
men of New York, without reference to party, and 
charged to represent the citizens in the collection of 
funds and the transaction of such other business in aid 
of the movements of the government as the pubhc 
interest might require. The Committee organized that 
evening under the name of the Union Defence Com- 
mittee. It was composed of the following citizens : — 
John A. Dix, chairman ; Simeon Draper, vice-chair- 
man ; William M. Evarts, secretary ; Theodore Dehon, 
treasurer ; Moses Taylor, Richard M. Blatchford, Ed- 
Avards Pierrepont, Alexander T. Stewart, Samuel Sloane, 
John Jacob Astor, Jr., John J. Cisco, James S. Wads- 
worth, Isaac Bell, James Boorman, Charles H. Marshall, 
Robert H. McCurdy, Moses H. Grinnell, Royal Phelps, 
William E. Dodge, Greene C. Bronson, Hamilton Fish, 
William F. Havemeyer, Charles H. Russell, James T. 
Brady, Rudolph A. Witthaus, Abiel A. Low, Prosper 
M. Wetmore, A. C. Richards, and the mayor, comp- 
troller and presidents of the two Boards of the Common 
Council of the City of New York. The Committee had 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 797 

rooms at No. 30 Fine street, open during the day, and 
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, open in the evening. 

It was not enough to provide men ; money also was 
needed. On the 22d of April the Common Council, 
by the recommendation of the mayor, passed an ordi- 
nance authorizing a loan of one million of dollars for 
the defence of the Union, in pursuance of which Union 
Defence Fund Bonds, payable May 1, 1862, were issued. 
On the same day a meeting of the whole New York 
Bar was held, at which twenty-five thousand dollars 
were contributed for the same purpose. A loan of five 
hundred thousand dollars in aid of the families of volun- 
teers, payable July 1, 1862, was subsequently made by 
the Common Council. This was but a beginning. It 
is estimated that in the course of three months, New 
Yoi-k furnished one hundred and fifty millions to the 
government ; and at the close of the year the secre- 
tary of the treasury reported that, out of the two 
hundred and sixty million dollars borrowed by the 
government, New York had furnished two hundred 
and ten millions. Boston had reduced the quota of her 
advance from thirty to twenty per cent, while New 
York took not only her own, but what Boston rejected. 
Without this aid, the government would have been 
forced, through lack of means, to consent to the dissolu- 
tion of the Union. 

New York now presented the aspect of a military 
city. The City Hall Park was fiUed with barracks 
for the accommodation of the Northern and Eastern 
troops that passed through the city on their way to the 
seat of war. Sunday was destined to be marked by 
great events throughout the conflict, but of all the 



798 



HISTORY OF THE 



memovable Sundaj^s during these four years, none per- 
haps was more impressive than the day after the great 
Union Square meeting. Sermons appropriate to the 
occasion were preached everywhere, and contributions 
were taken up to aid in fitting out regiments. In many 
of the churches, the flag was displayed, and the Star- 
Spangled Banner sung by the congregation after tlie 
service. The streets were thronged with an immense 
crowd assembled to witness the departure of the three 
regiments — the Sixth, Colonel Pinckney, the Twelfth, 
Colonel Butterfield, and the Seventy-first, Colonel Vos- 
burgh, that were to set out for Washington that after- 
noon. Bells were rung, cannon fired, and flags displayed 
on all the shipping and public buildings. The popular 
enthusiasm seemed unbounded. During the few re- 
maining days of the memorable month of April, the 
troops already mentioned were followed by the Eighth 
Regiment, Colonel Lyons ; the Thirteenth, Colonel 
Smith ; the Fifth, Colonel Schwarzwaelder ; the Second, 
Colonel Tompkins ; the Sixty-ninth, Colonel Corcoran ; 
the Ninth, Colonel Stiles ; and the Twenty-fifth, Colonel 
Bryan.* 

On the 22d of April General Wool, the commander 

* The New York City militia regiments which served for three months, at the 
expiration of which time they returned and were discharged, were as follows : 



Eegiments. 








Commandere. 






Left New York. 


Xo. of Men. 


Second Col. Geo. W. Tompkins . . 


April 28 


500 


Fifth. 












" C. Schwarzwaelder 






'' 27 


600 


Sixth. 












" Jos. C. Pinckney 






" 21 


550 


Seventh 












" Marshall Lefferts 






" 19 


1,050 


Eighth 












" George Lyons . 






" 23 


900 


Ninth 












" John W. Stiles . 






" 30 


800 


Twelfth 












" Daniel Butt«rfield 






" 21 


900 


Sixty-ninth 










" Mich.iel Corcoran 






" 29 


1,050 


Seventy-first 








" A. S. Vosburgh . 




" 21 


950 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 799 

of the Eastern Department, which comprised all the 
country north of the Potomac and cast of the Mississippi 
River, arrived in New York and fixed his quarters at 
the St. Nicholas Hotel. He had been preceded by 
Governor Morgan, who, having received orders from 
Washington to send on troops as fast as possible, had 
accepted the offer of Colonel Ellsworth's regiment of 
Zouaves, and commanded that rations and transportation 
should be furnished to all soldiers ordered to Washing- 
ton. A complication arose between these officials in 
relation to the Zouave regiment, which was full, and 
which the governor wished to reduce to seventy-seven 
men per company. None would go without the whole, 
and General Wool took the responsibility of ordering 
them forward at once. By way of reproof for his some- 
what irregular promptness, he was ordered to " tiy to 
recover his health," which never was better ; but the ac- 
tion was subsequently reconsidered, and he was restored 
to active service. The Union Defence Committee aided 
him in hastening troops to the seat of war. The twen- 
ty-one regiments offered by the State over and above 
its quota had been accepted, and on the 24th of April 
Geo. Schuyler left for Europe wth five huudi-ed thou- 
sand dollars wherewith to purchase arms. 

In the meantime, the women of the city set to work 
with one accord to prepare means for softening the 
labors of the soldiers in the field, and alleviating the 
sufferings of the sick and wounded. On the 25th of 
April a number of ladies met at a private house and 
formed the plan of a Central Relief Association. A com- 
mittee was appointed, with instructions to call a meetnig 
of the women of New York at Cooper Institute, on the 



800 HISTORY OF THE 

morning of the 29th iust., to concert measures for the 
reUef of the sick and wounded. The largest gathering 
of women ever seen in the city responded to the appeal. 
David Dudley Field was chosen president, and the meet- 
ing was addressed by the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, Han- 
nibal Hamlin, the Vice-President of the United States, 
and others. An organization was effected, with Dr. 
Valentine Mott as president ; Dr. Bellows, vice-presi- 
dent ; G. F. Allen, secretary ; and Howard Potter, treas- 
urer ; and the corner-stone was thus laid of that noble 
institution, the United States Sanitary Commission, 
which followed the army everywhere, and assuaged the 
sufferings caused by war. Thousands of women, and 
even children, devoted themselves to scraping lint, knit- 
ting socks, making garments, and preparing delicacies 
for the sick and wounded whom they saw in perspective ; 
and scores of the most tenderly reared and delicate 
young ladies volunteered their services as hospital 
nurses, and went into training under the directions of the 
city physicians. The month of April, 1861, was a sub- 
lime era in the annals of New York, as in those of the 
whole country. Minor differences were forgotten, and, 
for the moment, all hearts in the great city seemed to 
beat in unison. 

The work of forwarding troops went on, and by the 
25th of May the authorized thirty thousand men had 
been raised by the State, and by the 12th of July they 
had been organized into thirty-eight regiments, Officered, 
and despatched to the seat of war. Ten regiments were 
accepted in addition from the Union Defence Committee, 
in response to a call made by the President on the 4th 
of May for volunteers, and by the 1st of July the State 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 801 

of New York had nearly fortj-seven thousand troops in 
the field ; consisting of three months' militia, three years' 
militia, two years' volunteers, and three years' volun- 
teers. Of these, the Eleventh, New York Zouaves, 
Colonel Ellsworth, the first volunteer regiment in the 
tield ; the Twenty-Eighth, Colonel Bennett ; and the 
f'^ourteenth. Colonel Wood, left New York City in May, 
followed in June by the Eighth, Colonel Blenker ; the 
Tenth, Colonel McChesney ; the Garibaldi Guard, Colo- 
nel D'Utassy ; the Twelfth, Colonel Quincy ; the Thir- 
teenth, Colonel Walrath ; the Ninth, Colonel Hawkins ; 
the Sixth, Colonel Wilson ; the Fourteenth, Colonel 
McQuade ; the Thirty-Eighth, Colonel Hobart ; the 
Eighteenth, Colonel Jackson ; the Seventeenth, Colonel 
Lansing ; the Thirty-seventh, Colonel McCunn ; and the 
Thirty-first, Colonel Pratt, of the volunteers ; and the 
Seventy-ninth, Colonel Cameron ; the Nineteenth, Colo- 
nel Clark ; Company K., Ninth New York, Captain Bunt- 
ing ; the Twenty-first, Colonel Rogers ; the Twenty- 
sixth, Colonel Christin ; the Twenty-ninth, Colonel 
Von Steinwehr ; the Twenty-eighth, Colonel Donnelly ; 
the First, Colonel Montgomery ; the Sixteenth, Colonel 
Davies ; and the Thirtieth, Colonel Matheson, of the 
New York State troops. Money was poui'ed out with 
a lavish hand ; churches, associations, and individuals 
liberally contributing everywhere to the outfit of the 
troops. 

On the 8th of May General John A. Dix was ap- 
pointed Major-General of New York, and on the 15th 
of May, the other Major-Generalship was bestowed om 
James S. Wadsworth, who afterwards fell in the battle 
of the Wilderness. 

51 



80-i HISTORY OF THE 

Time forbids us to follow the soldiers through their 
wanderings ; it suffices to say that there was not a land 
engagement in 1861, east of the AUeghanies and south 
of Washington, in which the brave New York soldiers 
did not participate. The first flag taken from the insur- 
gents was the trophy of two New Yorkers, William 
McSpedon, of New York City, and Samuel Smith, of 
Queens County, Long Island, who, spying from Wash- 
ington a Confederate flag flying in Alexandria, went over 
and captured it. On the next day, another New Yorker, 
Colonel Ellsworth, the commander of the first volunteer 
regiment that marched from New York, fell while 
attempting to haul down the stars and bars. He was 
the first officer that had fallen in the struggle, and the 
first man, in fact, in the campaign. His death caused 
an intense excitement in New York, where he was well 
known, and where his ability and gallant bearing had 
inspired great admiration. His body was taken to 
Washington, where the funeral services were performed 
at the White House, President Lincoln officiating as 
chief mourner ; it was then brought to New York, where 
it lay in state for two days at the City Hall, after which 
it was escorted through the streets by an immense pro- 
cession to the railroad depot, whence it was taken to 
Colonel Ellsworth's native place, Mechanicsville, N. Y., 
for interment. Under the influence of the popular 
excitement, a regiment was immediately formed, under 
the name of the EUsworth Avengers. 

His fate but presaged that of thousands of others. 
To chronicle the sons of New York who fell in the san- 
guinary conflict would far transcend the limits of this 
brief sketch. The disastrous battle of Bull Run was 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 803 

especiall}' fatal to the New York troops, many of whom 
were killed or made prisoners, among others, Colonels 
Corcoran and Wood, who were held as hostages for the 
crew of a privateer imprisoned by the United States 
government on a charge of jDiracy. Immediately after 
this disaster, without waiting for additional authority 
from the Legislature, Governor Morgan issued a pro- 
clamation calling for twenty-five thousand troops to 
serve for three years. On the 1st of October the quota 
of the State was raised to one hundred thousand, and 
on the 1st of November to one hundred and twenty 
thousand men. 

In the December election of 1861 George Opdyke, a 
New York merchant of earnest patriotism and untiring 
energy, was chosen mayor. This was a fortunate 
choice, which secured to the city, during the two most 
critical years of the war, the services of a loyal and effi- 
cient chief magistrate. Time forbids us to dilate on 
the events of the year farther than to say that, in spite 
of the Bull Run disaster, the result had been favorable 
to the Federal forces ; the Border States having been 
secured to the Union, the insurgents driven out of 
Western Virginia, the lilockade maintained, and many 
important naval advantages won. During the year 
1861 New York City had put into the field over sixty 
thousand volunteers, exclusive of militia ; and heavily as 
she had suffered from the loss of her Southern debts, 
had loaned to the general government more than one 
hundred million dollars. 

The campaign of 1862 opened brilliantly. Signal 
victories followed each other for month after month : in 
the West the fall of Forts Donelson and Henrv, Nash- 



804 HISTORY OF THE 

ville, Memphis and Corinth, and the battle of Pittsburg 
Landing ; on the coast, the successful expedition of 
Burnside ; and at the South, the capture of New Orleans, 
inspired the public with a belief that the war was fast 
advancing to a happy termination. Under the lead of 
her patriotic mayor. New York continued her contri- 
butions of men and money without stint, and by re- 
peated demonstrations manifested her fidelity to the 
Union cause. On the 14th of February, 1862, Mayor 
Opdyke issued a proclamation of congratulation on 
G-eneral Bui-nside's victory at Roanoke Island, and the 
other triumphs of the Union arms, and recommended 
that on the following day a hundred guns should be 
fired from the Battery and Madison Square, and the 
national flag displayed on the public and private build- 
ings. In accordance with the spirit of the times, the 
22d of February was celebrated with unusual solemnity, 
and a mass meeting was held at the Cooper Institute. 

On the 11th of April the mayor also issued a procla- 
mation of thanksgiving for the victory at Pittsburg 
Landing. Meanwhile the city exerted itself to aid the 
sick and wounded, and to provide for the families of 
the volunteers. An appi'opriation was made for a 
company of loyal refugees from Florida, who had been 
driven from their homes and reduced to utter destitu- 
tion. On the 2d of May, 1862, a Home for Sick and 
Wounded Soldiers, capable of accommodating four or 
five hundred patients, was opened by an association of 
ladies, headed by Mrs. Valentine Mott, in the building 
on the corner of Lexington Avenue and Fifty-first 
street, erected a few years before for an Infants' Home. 
Other similar ii:stitutions were opened ; among others 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 805 

Mount St. Vincent, in the Central Park. On the 18th 
of June the Common Council passed an ordinance 
appropriating five hundred thousand dollars for the 
relief of the families of volunteers. 

After half a year of uninterrupted victory, the sea- 
son of reverses began. General McClellan's campaign 
against Richmond, at the head of the (irand Army of 
the Potomac, from which so much had been expected, 
proved a failure, and the country was overshadowed 
with gloom. At this juncture, the Chamber of Com- 
merce met on the 7th of July, and passed an unani- 
mous resolution that a committee of five should be 
appointed, to meet similar committees from the Union 
Defence Committee and other loyal organizations, for 
the purpose of devising measures to sustain the Na- 
tional Government. This resolution was transmitted 
to the Common Council by Mayor Opdyke, with the 
recommendation that it should also pledge the people 
of the metropolis to the support of the government in 
the prosecution of the war and the maintenance of the 
national honor, and that a public meeting should be 
called, without distinction of party, to express the un- 
diminished confidence of the citizens in the justice of 
their cause, and their inflexible purpose to maintain it 
to the end, and to proffer to the government all the aid 
it might need, to the extent of their resources. 

In August, General Corcoran was released from his 
thirteen months' imprisonment by the Richmond au- 
thorities, and was received with great enthusiasm, on 
the 22d of August, at Castle Garden, where he was 
met by the municipal authorities and addressed by the 
mayor. The rank of brigadier-general had been con- 



806 



HISTORY Of THE 



ferred on him by President Lincoln, ni appieciatiou of 
his valor and sufferings. On the 27th inst. a great 
war-meeting was held in the City Hall Park, which 
was thronged to overflowing. Speeches were raade by 
Mayor Opdyke, General Corcoran, and others, and it 
was resolved, as far as practicable, to close all places 
of business at 3 P. M. until the 13th of the ensuing 
September, in order to enable loyal citizens to carry- 
forward volunteering, and to perfect themselves in mili- 
tary drill. To further this work, the Common Council 
passed an ordinance, which was approved by the mayor, 
offering fifty dollars bounty to each volunteer.* 

This was an exciting epoch of the war. General 
Pope had concentrated a large force about Washington, 
and a decisive engagement was hourly expected. The 
crisis came ; and on the 30th of August the second 
disastrous battle of Bull Run was fought, followed 
shortly after by the Confederate advance into Mary- 
land. The battles of South Mountain and Antietam 
repelled the invaders, and another campaign against 
Richmond was undertaken, again without success. The 
battle of Fredericksburg closed the year disastrously. 
Yet, if less had been gained than the public had hoped, 

* The following New York City Militia Regiments served for three months in 
1862. See Report of County Volunteer Committee. 



Kf-ii 



Commanders. 



LeftNewTork 



Seventh . . . 

Eiglith . . . 

Eleventh . . 

Twelfth . . . 
Thirtj'-seventh 

Sixty-ninth . . 

Seventy-first . 



Col. Marshall Lefferts 

" J. M. Varian . . 

" Joachim Maidlioff 

" Wm. G. Ward . 

" Chas. Roome . . 

" James Bagley 

" Henrv P. Martin 



May- 26 
" 29 
" 28 
June 6 
May 29 
" 30 
" 28 



700 
820 
630 
805 
600 
1,000 
830 

5,385 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 807 

little had been lost. The whole coast, from Cape Henrv 
to the Rio Grande, was occupied by the Union forces, 
with the exception of Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, 
and Wilmington, and a few unimportant places ; and 
the Northern Army was closing in upon the insurgent 
territory. During the year. New York City appropri- 
ated a million and a half of dollars for the relief of 
the families of volunteers. It was estimated that dar- 
ing the first two years of the war the people of the city 
had contributed to its support, in taxes, gratuities and 
loans to the government, not less than three hundred 
millions of dollars, and had furnished over eighty thou- 
sand volunteers.* 

Yet the great metropolis did not flag beneath this 
heavy burden, but bore the load cheerfully and withour 
complaint ; and on viewing the sacrifices which she 
readily imposed on herself — heavier, far, than were 
endured by any other city in the Union — we marvel 
that any one should dare to impugn her loyalty, or to 
judge her by the irresponsible masses that too often 
rule her elections. 

The year 1863 was the turning-point of the conflict. 
and also the most eventful, if we except the brilliant 
succession of victories which marked its termination. 
The season opened gloomily ; although the area of the 
rebellion had been reduced, its spirit seemed more 
defiant than ever. The first great event of the year 
was the emancipation proclamation, which took effect 
on the 1st of January, and virtually blotted slavery 
from the soil of the republic. Some believed, and 
others doubted, in the efficacy of this act, which was not 

* See Mayor Opdyke's Annual Message, January 1, 18C3. 



SOS HISTORY OF THE 

at first followed by any brilliant results. The unanimity 
which had characterized the conflict in the beginning 
no longer prevailed ; a large paity had been formed in 
the North which was anxious for peace dt any price. 
This party exerted a powerful influence in New York 
City, which had become the centre of Southern immi- 
gration. It was confidently predicted that this city, 
the political complexion of which was so strongly dem- 
ocratic, would refuse to assist longer in prosecuting 
the war, and would openly declare in favor of peace. 
As the season waned, even the most stout-hearted lost 
courage, and wavered in their faith of ultimate success. 
The last State election had resulted in a triumph of the 
democratic party, and the governor was notoriously 
opposed to the war. Under these influences, a great 
mass meeting was held in New York, on the 3d of 
June, consisting of deputies from all parts of the State, 
where resolutions were passed denouncing the adminis- 
tration, and counselling compromises in order to obtain 
peace. This was not, hoAvever, the prevailing spirit 
among the citizens, who, in contradistinction, held war 
meetings, formed patriotic organizations, and left noth- 
ing undone to support the administration. Foremost 
among these was the Union League Club, which was 
formed on the broad basis of unquahfied loyalty to the 
government of the country, and unswerving support of 
its efforts for the suppression of the rebelhon, and which 
embraced in its ranks almost every prominent loyalist 
in the city. The history of the Union League Club is 
the history of New York patriotism. We shall have 
occasion to recur again to this great institution ; it 
suffices to say here that from its organization in 1863, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 809 

to the present time, it has been untiring in its eflbrts 
to secure the triumph of tlie right, and to uproot the 
causes of strife. 

One of the most remarkable outgrowths of the Union 
League Chib was the Loyal Publication Society, which 
plaj^ed so important a part in the great struggle, that a 
sketch of its rise and progress wiU not be inappropriate 
in this connection. 

As we have already said, the year 1863 opened 
gloomy and beset with difficulties. It is now an ad- 
mitted historical fact, that a vast conspiracy — " The 
"Knights of the Golden Circle" — was laboring in the 
West to carry the people of that mighty region into the 
rebellion of the South. In the East a powerful faction 
poisoned the pubhc mind, not only by the regular 
action of the press, but also by the working of a society, 
organized at New York, which, under the euphonious 
name of "The Society for the Diffusion of Political 
"Knowledge," preached disloyalty and hostility to all 
the measures of the government. 

It was under these circumstances that William T. 
Blodgett, one of the most zealous patriots of New York, 
met at Washington, in the beginning of Fel)ruary, the 
secretaries of war and of the navy, the Hon. Edwin 
M. Stanton and the Hon. Gideon Welles, as well as the 
speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon. 
Schuyler Colfax. These gentlemen consulted about 
the means of counteracting the efforts made by the 
Northern allies of the Southern goveniment. Immedi- 
ately after his return to New York, Mr. Blodgett 
invited a number of loyal and devoted citizens to a 
consultation about the organization of a society such as 



810 HISTORY OF THE 

had been suggested iu the mterview which had taken 
place at Washington. This initiatoiy step speedily led 
to the wished-foi- i-esult. On the evening of the 14th 
of February, 1863, at a meeting held at the house of 
Charles Butler, the Loyal Publication Society was or- 
ganized. 

Charles King was unanimously elected permanent 
president, and John Austin Stevens, Jr., permanent 
secretary. 

The following resolution was unanimously adopted as 
the fundamental law : 

' ' Resolved, That the object of this organization is 
" and shall be confined to the distribution of journals and 
"documents of unquestionable and unconditional loyalty 
"throughout the United States, and particularly in the 
"armies now engaged in the suppression of the rebelhon, 
"and to counteract, as far as practicable, the eflforts now 
" being made by the enemies of the government and the 
"advocates of a disgraceful Peace, to circulate journals 
"and documents of a disloyal character." 

Eighty prominent citizens subscribed for the neces- 
sary funds, and the Society at once began its patriotic 
work. The number of subscribers rapidly increased to 
171, and the money contributed in t}ie second year 
amounted to $11,620.94. 

The Society held its first anniversary meeting on 
February 13, 1864. Mr. King resigned as president on 
account of continued iU-health, and Dr. Francis Lieber 
was unanimously elected in his place. Mr. John Austin 
Stevens had tendered his resignation as permanent 
secretary, but was unanimously re-elected. Both these 
gentlemen were continued in their functions until the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 811 

final dissolution of the Society. Among the most active 
members of the Society are to be mentioned Messrs. 
Morris Ketchum, Charles Butler, George Griswold, 
Charles H. Marshall, James McKaye, Jackson S. Schultz, 
C. G. Detmold, T. B. Coddington, LeGrand B. Cannon, 
George P. Putnam, Wm. P.Blodgett, Sinclair Tousey, 
George Cabot Ward, T. Butler Wright, Grosvenoi- 
Lowrey, Fred. Schutz, W. C. Church and Charles Astor 
Bristed. 

The Society published in the first year 43 pamphlets, 
containing 720 pages of printed matter. The total 
number of the documents was 400,000, at a cost of 
$10,211.46. The pamphlets published by the Society 
were distributed in every accessible State. Between 
the 23d of P'ebruary and the 4th of April, 1863, there 
were sent to Washington, for distribution to the Army 
of the Rappahannock, 36,000 journals and publications. 
Mr. Robert Dale Owen's "Future of the Northwest" 
was the powerful and effective reply to the insidious 
efforts of the conspirators of the "Golden Circle." 

In April, 1863, a plan was submitted to the Society 
to aid in the establishment of an "Army and Navy 
"Journal " on principles of unconditional loyalty. Under 
the auspices of the Loyal Publication Society of New 
York, aided by that of New England, and the Union 
League Club of Philadelphia, this well-known and de- 
serving journal was established in New York, under the 
direction of Captain W. C. Church. Soon there came 
from many parts of the country the warmest expres- 
sions of thanks to the Loyal Publication Society for the 
great service rendered to the cause of the LTnion and 
Libertv. 



812 HISTORT OF THE 

During the second year the Society pubhshed 33 
pamphlets, containing 637 pages of printed matter, and 
distributed them all over the country and to the armies, 
in 470,000 copies. A great number of them was sent 
to England, France, and other European countries, 
where they helped the noble friends of our cause to 
dispel the clouds of errors, prejudices and evil passions 
raised by the emissaries of the Confederate govern- 
ment and its aiders and abettors. 

On the second anniversary meeting of the Society 
the following addition was made to the declaration of 
the object of the Loyal PubUcation Society : 

"By the dissemination, Xorth and South, of weU- 
' considered information and principles, to aid the 
■ national government in the suppression and final ex- 
' tinction of slavery, by amendment to the Constitution 
' of the United States, to reconcile the master and slave 
' to their new and changed conditions, and so to adjust 
' their interests that peace and harmony may soon pre- 
' vail, and the nation, repairing the ravages of war, 
' enter upon a new, unbroken career of liberty, justice 
' and pi-osperity." 

During the third year of its operation the Loyal 
Publication Society issued only ten pamphlets, but these 
formed a substantial volume of 526 pages. 

The complete overthrow of the rebellion led several 
of the most active and influential members of the 
Society to think the mission of that organization 
fulfilled. Hence at the third anniversary meeting, 
held on February 27, 1866, at the rooms of the Society, 
the following motion was made and unanimously adopted : 
'•In the opinion of this Society, the condition of the 



CITTOF NEW YORK. 813 

" country no longer calls for the active labors of this 
" Society as an independent organization." 

The president, Dr. Francis Lieber, addressed some 
deeply felt and impressive remarks to the members 
present, and adjourned the Society sine die, with the 
words : God save the Great Republic ! God protect 
our Country ! 

The property, stereotype plates and effects of the 
Loyal Publication Society were transferred to the Union 
League Club of New York. 

The Loyal Publication Society of New York has been 
the worthy twin-sister of the Sanitary Commission ; the 
latter took care of the bodies of our patriotic soldiers, 
the former administered salutary remedies to many an 
infected mind. 

The documents published by that patriotic Society 
are now eagerly sought for by historians and public 
libraries.* 

* The following list of the publications issued by the Loyal Publication Society 
during its existence -nTll indicate its scope and spirit, and is a valuable historical 
record : 
No. 1. Future of the Northwest. By Eolerl Dale Owen. 

2. Echo from the Army. Extracts from Letters of Soldiers. 

3. Union Mass Meeting, Cooper Institute, March 6, 1863. Speeclies of -Brady, 

Van Buren, &c. 

4. Three Toices: the Soldier, Farmer and Poet. 

5. Toices from the Army. Letters and Resolutions of Soldiers. 

6. Northern True Men. Addresses of Connecticut Soldiers— Extracts from 

Richmond Journals. 

7. Speech of Major-General Butler. Academy of Music, New York, April 2, 

1863. 

8. Separation; War without End. Ed. Laboulaye. 

9. The Venom and the Antidote. Copperhead Declarations. Soldiers' Letters. 

10. A few Words in Behalf of the Loyal Women of the United States. By One 

of Themselves. Mrs. C. M. EirkJand. 

11. No Failure for the North. Atlantic Monthly. 

12. Address to King Cotton. Eugene Peltetan. 



814 HISTORY OF THE 

Most of the great national benevolent organizations, 
indeed, had their rise in New York City. The United 
States Sanitary Commission, that noble instrument of 
good, was in some sort an outgrowth, as we have already 
stated, of the Woman's Central Relief Association, 
formed in New York in April, 1861, and was first sug- 

No. 13. How a Free People conduct a long War. StiUe. 

14. The Preservation of the Union a National Economic Necessity. 

15. Elements of Discord in Seeessia. By William, Alexander, Esq., of Texas. 

16. No Party now, but all for our Country. Francis Lieber. 

17. The Cause of the War. Col Charles Anderson. 

18. Opinions of the early Presidents and of the Fathers of the Republic upon 

Slavery, and upon Negroes as Men and Soldiers. 

19. ®trtf)cit unb )5rtit)fit» son Hermann Maftcr. 

20. Military Despotism! Suspension of the Habeas Corpus I &c. 

21. Letter addressed to the Opera-House Meeting, Cincinnati. By Col. Charles 

Anderson. 

22. Emancipation is Peace. By Robert Dale Owen. 

23. Letter of Peter Cooper on Slave Emancipation. 

24. Patriotism. Sermon by the Rev. Jos. Fransiola, of St. Peter's (CathoUc) 

Church, Brooklyn. 

25. The Conditions of Reconstruction. By Robert Dale Owen. 

26. Letter to the President. By ffen. A. J. Hamilton, of Texas. 

27. Nullification and Compromise: a Retrospective View. By Johti Mason 

Williams. 

28. The Death of Slavery. Letter from Peter Cooper to Gov. Seymour. 

29. Slavery Plantations and the Yeomanry. Francis Lieber. 

30. Rebel Conditions of Peace. Extracts from Richmond Journals. 

31. Address of the Loyal Leagues, Utica, October 20, 1863. 

32. War Power of the President — Summary Imprisonment. By J. Eeermans. 

33. The Two Ways of Treason. 

34. The Monroe Doctrine. By Edtcard Everett, &c. 

35. The Arguments of Secessionists. Francis Lieber. 

36. Prophecy and Fulfilment. Letter of A. H. Stephens — Address of E. W. 

Gantt. 
3". How the South Rejected Compromise, Ac. Speech of Mr. Chase m Peace 
Conference of 1861. 

38. Letters on our National Struggle. By Brigadier- General Thomas Francis 

Meagher. 

39. Bible View of Slavery, by John H. Hopkms, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese 

of Vermont. Examined by Henry Driskr. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 815 

gested by Henry W. Bellows, D.D., W. H. Van Buren, 
M.D., and Jacob Harsen, M.D., all representatives of 
this and kindred associations of New York, who, on 
the 18th of May, 1861, addressed the secretary of war, 
recommending the formation of an organization of this 
kind. The Commission was duly authorized on the 9th 

No. 40. The Conscription Act: a Series of Articles. By Geo. B. Butler, N. Y. 

41. Reponse de MM. De Gasparin, Laboiilaye, &c. 

42. Reply of Messrs. Gasparin, Laboulaye, and others. 

43. Sliitwcvt itx ^crrcn Ee ®a?t""'"' Caboula^t, Wartin, SoAin, an tie Cotjal 

5Jaticnal Scague. 

44. Proceedings of First Anniversary Meeting of the Loyal Publication Society 

February 13, 1864. 

45. Finances and Resources of the United States. By H. G. Steblins. 

46. How the War Commenced. From Cincinnati Daily Ccnnmercial. 

47. Result of Serf Emancipation in Russia. 

48. Resources of the United States. By S. B. Buggies. 

49. Patriotic Songs. A collection by G. P. Putnam. 

50. The Constitution Vindicated. James A. Hamilton. 

51. No Property in Man. Charles Sumner. 

52. Rebellion, Slavery and Peace. N. G. Upham. 

53. How the War Commenced. (German Translation for the South.) By 

Dr. F. Schutz. 

54. Our Burden and Our Strength. David A. Wells. 

55. Emancipated Slave and His Master. (German Translation.) By Dr. F. 

Schuts, for the Society. 

56. The Assertions of a Secessionist. Alex. H. Stephens. 

57. Growler's Income Tax. By T. S. Arthur, Philadelphia. 

58. Emancipated Slave and his Master. James McKaye, L. P. S. 

59. Lincoln or McClellan. (German.) By Francis Lieber. 

60. Peace through Victory. (Sermon.) By Bev. J. P. Thompson. 

61. Sherman vs. Hood. Broadside. By the Secretary. 

62. The War for the Union. By WiUiam Swinton. 

63. Letter on McClellan's Nomination. Son. Gerrit Smith. 

64. Letters of Loyal Soldiers. Parts 1, 2, 3, 4. By the Secretary. 

65. Submissionists and their Record. Parts 1 and 2. By the Secretary. 

66. Coercion Comi^leted, or Treason Triumphant. By John C. Hamilton. 

67. Lincoki or McClellan. (English.) By Francis Lieber. 

68. The Cowards' Convention. By Charles Astor Bristed. 

69. Whom do the EngUsh wish Elected ? By Frederick Milne Edge. 

70. Collection of Letters from Europe. By G. P. Putnam, L. P. S. 



816 HISTORY OF THE 

of June, 1861, with the Rev. Dr. BeUows as president. 
It speedily extended its ramifications over the whole 
country, and proved an indescribable blessing to the 
soldiers. 

The United States Christian Commission was also 
organized in New York, at a Convention of the Young 
Men's Christian Associations, held on the 16th Novem- 
ber, 1861. This association, which was designed to 
promote the phj-sical comfort and spiritual welfare of 
the soldiers, was an instrument of great usefulness dur- 
ing the war. Another most important organization was 
the United States Union Commission, which was organ- 
ized in 1864, under the auspices of the Rev. Dr. Joseph 
P. Thompson, of New York, for the purpose of reliev- 
ing the necessities of the destitute refugees from the 
South, and which has since united with the Freedmen's 
Commission. Besides these great national organiza- 

No. 71. Lincoln or McCleUan. (Dutch Translation.) 

72. Address of Dr. Schutz, at Philadelphia, October 5, 1865. 

73. Address of N. G. Taylor on Loyalty and Sufl'erings of East Tennessee. 

74. The Slave Power. By J. C. Hamilton. 

75. The Great Issue. Address by John Jay. 

76. Narrative of Sufferings of U. S. Prisoners of War in the hands of Rebel 
Authorities. By U. S. Sanitary Commission. 

77. Address on Secession. Delivered by i>r. Lieber m South Carolina in 1851. 

78. Report of the Society. 

79. Letter on Amendments of the Constitution. By Francis Lieber. 

80. America for Free Working Men. By C. Kordhoff. 

81. General McClellan's Campaign. By F. M. Edge. 

82. Speech on Reconstruction. By Hon. Wm. D. KeUey. 

83. Amendments of the Constitution. By Francis Lieber. 

84. Crimes of the South. By W. W. Broom. 

85. Lincoln's Life and its Lessons. By Bev. J. P. Thompson, D. D. 

86. National System of Education. By Rev. Charles Brooks. 

87. Gasparin's Letter to President Johnson. Translated by Mary L. Booth. 

88. Memorial Service for Three Hundred Thousand Union Soldiers, with a 

Commemorative Discourse. By Jos. P. Thompson, D. D. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 817 

tions, numberless minor associations were formed for 
the relief of the soldiers. In July, 1863, a State Sol- 
diers' Depot was established in Howard street, which 
was endowed by the State and which combined a sol- 
diers' home, hospital, and reading-room. This institu- 
tion had agents on all the railroad trains, whose duty it 
was to protect the soldiers from wrong, and to look 
after the sick and wounded. A Soldiers' Rest was 
established in Fourth Avenue, near the railroad depots 
on the corner of Twenty-sixth and Twenty-seventh 
streets, under the auspices of the Union League Club, 
where soldiers arriving in and leaving the city were 
provided for during their temporary stay. At No. 194 
Broadway were the rooms of the New England Soldiers' 
Relief Association, which was organized in 1862 for the 
especial benefit of the soldiers from New England, but 
which opened its doors to all without distinction. But 
even to catalogue all the noble associations that sprung 
up in New York City through public and private enter- 
prise, would fill a volume ; and as we have before 
remarked, we cannot in this brief sketch undertake to 
do justice to the patriotism of New York City, but only 
to chronicle some of the most striking examples thereof 
We should not omit mention, however, of a movement 
which was set on foot about the same time to discour- 
age the importation of goods during the war, and thus 
prevent specie from leaving the country. For this end, 
a large meeting of the women of New York was held at 
the Cooper Institute, where great numbers pledged 
themselves to purchase no articles except those of home 
manufacture, save in cases of absolute necessity, until 
peace should be declared. 

52 



818 HISTORY OF THE 

In the mean time, the army was rapidly being de- 
pleted by the expiration of the terms of enlistment of 
the two years', twelve months', and nine months' regi- 
ments. Some sixty-five thousand men would leave the 
service in the spring and summer of 1863, and there 
was little probability that their places would be sup- 
plied by volunteers, even under the temptation of the 
enormous bounties oftered. To meet this exigency, on 
the 3d of March, 1863, Congress passed an emolment 
and conscription act, authorizing the President to re- 
cruit the army when necessary, by drafting from the 
able-bodied citizens between the ages of twenty and 
forty-five. The drafted men were allowed to furnish 
substitutes, or to pay $300, in consideration of which 
the government undertook to procure them. 

Although conscription had been practised from the 
very beginning by the South, this measure was de- 
nounced by a large class in the North, as violent and 
unconstitutional, and a virulent spirit of opposition was 
manifested, especially among those opposed to the war. 
A general enrolment nevertheless was made, and early 
in May a draft of three hundred thousand men was 
ordered to take place in each district, as soon as the 
enrolment therein was completed, and the quota as- 
signed. Just at this juncture General Lee invaded 
Maryland and Pennsylvania, with the hope of transfer- 
ring the seat of war to the north of the Potomac, and 
relieving the Shenandoah Valley of the Federal troops. 
The Confederates ravaged Southern Pennsylvania, and 
advanced to within a few miles of Harrisburg, and their 
commander issued manifestoes from that place and 
York. The greatest consternation prevailed. The 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



819 



governor of Pciins3'lvauia called the troops of the 
State to arms, and entreated assistance from the neigh- 
boring States. President Lincoln made a requisition 
on Governor Seymour for twenty thousand militia, to 
aid in repelling the invasion ; to which the latter re- 
sponded by directing General Sandford, the commander 
of the New Yoi'k City militia, to send every available 
regiment at his disposal to the seat of war for thirty 
days' service, and giving similar orders to the militia of 
the neighboring cities. The troops wei-e immediately 
directed to hold themselves in readiness, and on the fol- 
lowing day, the 16th of June, General Sandford issued 
a general order directing the regiments of the First 
Division of the New York State Militia, comprising all 
those belonging in New York City, to repair foi'thwith 
to Harrisburg. The Seventh Regiment at once led the 
way, followed within a few days by nearly all the rest 
of the city militia, as well as those of Brooklyn.* The 
result is well known : the tide of invasion was driven 
back, and the national holiday was gladdened by the 
news of the victory of Gettysburg and the capture of 
Vicksburs;. 



* Ke^ments. 


Commanders. 


Left New York 


No. of Men. 


Fourth 


Col. Daniel W. Teller . . 


June 20 


500 


Fifth . . 










" Louis Burger . . 






" 19 


828 


SLxth . 










" Joel W. Mason . 






" 22 


656 


Seventh . 










•' Marshall Lefferts 






" 16 


850 


Eighth . 










" I. M. Varian . . 






" 18 


371 


Eleventh 










" J. Maidliofi" . . 






" 18 


762 


Twelfth . 










" Wm. G. Ward . 






" 19 


684 


Twenty-second 






" Lloyd Aspinwall 






" 19 


568 


Thirty-seventh 






" Chas. Roone . . 






" 19 


693 


Fifty-fifth . . 






" Eugene Le Gal . 






" 24 


350 


Sixty-ninth. . 






" James Bagley 






" 22 


600 


Seventy-first . 






" B. L. Trafford . 






" 18 


737 


Eighty-fourth . 






" P. A. CoukUng . 






July 3 


480 








8,079 



820 HISTORY OF THE 

This joy was soon overshadowed by the most humiU- 
ating event ever recorded in the annals of New York. 
The victories which rejoiced the hearts of the loyal 
citizens exasperated the disloyal part of the population, 
and urged them to desperate measures. The draft was 
to commence on the 11th of July, and the opportunity 
was seized to instigate an outbreak which might turn 
the scale anew. New York was in a most defenceless 
condition, being stripped of troops and devoid of any 
means of protection. Mayor Opdyke had remonstrated 
with Governor Seymour against thus draining the city 
of the militia on the eve of the draft, but the governor 
had replied that the orders of his superiors left him no 
discretion in the matter ; and, moreover, that he was 
confident that the city would be safe under the protec- 
tion of the police. Not sharing this security, the mayor 
ineffectually urged the governor to authorize the raising 
of twenty or thirty new regiments, in order to 
strengthen the militia force. Failing in this, he next 
asked the government to postpone the draft until the 
return of the troops from their thirty days' service ; but 
this was not deemed advisable, and the draft was com- 
menced under the direction of Colonel Nugent, the pro- 
vost-marshal, on Saturday, the 11th of July, on the 
corner of Forty-sixth street and Third Avenue, in the 
ninth congressional district. A large crowd assembled, 
but the drafting proceeded quietly, amidst the apparent 
good-humor of the spectators, and it was generally sup- 
posed that the apprehended danger had passed by. 

The next day secret meetings were held, and meas- 
ures were concerted to resist the draft by force. Early 
on Monday morning an organized band went from shop 



CITY OF XEW YORK. 821 

to shop, persuading or coercing the men to quit their 
work and join the procession that was on its way to 
the provost-marshal's office in Tliird Avenue. Captain 
Jenkins and his assistants had just commenced drafting, 
when the report of a pistol was heard in the street, and 
at the signal a volley of paving-stones crashed through 
the windows, overturning the inkstands, and felling two 
or three of the officials to the ground. In an instant 
after the infuriated mob, suddenly fired with rage, burst 
open the doors, broke the furniture, destroyed the 
records, and beat and dispersed the officials. Deputy 
Provost-Marshal Vanderpoel was carried out for dead ; 
the rest escaped uninjured. Not content with wrealving 
their vengeance on the drafting machinery, the rioters 
proceeded to fire the building, after pouring camphene 
on the floor, and the whole block between Forty-fifth 
and Forty-sixth streets was speedily reduced to ashes. 
Chief-Engineer Decker, of the Fire Department, has- 
tened to the spot, but the rioters had gained possession 
of the hydrants, and would not suffer the firemen to 
have access to them till the flames were beyond control. 
The police were driven off, and Superintendent Kennedy 
was knocked down and nearly beaten to death. In this 
emergency the mayor made a requisition on G-eneral 
Sandford and General Wool to call out the troops under 
their command, and telegraphed to G-overnor Seymour 
urging him to send militia from the adjoining counties. 
He also telegraphed to the governors of the neighboring 
States, and requested the co-operation of Mr. Acton, 
the president of the police board. G-eneral Wool 
immediately ordered all the garrisons of the various 
fortifications in the neighborhood to repair to the city. 



822 HISTORY OF THE 

and requested Admiral Paulding to send the marines 
from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. General Harvey Brown 
was placed in immediate command of the forces in New 
York, and was stationed at the police headquarters, 
whence expeditions of the military and the police were 
sent in various directions to quell the riot wherever it 
was reported to be most formidable. General Sandford, 
with the handful of the militia that remainea in the 
city, took up his headquarters at the Seventh Avenue 
Arsenal, which he defended from attack, dispersing 
several mobs in the vicinity, and General Wool and the 
mayor established themselves at the St. Nicholas. The 
Tenth New York Regiment, happily, had not yet left. 
It was ordered to remain, and was stationed, part in the 
City Arsenal and part in the arsenal at the Central Park, 
The entire force assembled in the city up to twelve 
o'clock at night did not amount to one thousand men. 

A detachment of the Invalid Corps of about fifty in 
number, under the command of Lieutenant Reed, was 
sent in a Third Avenue car to the scene of the riot at 
Forty-sixth street. The crowd, which by this time had 
swelled to an army of men, women and children, 
received notice of their coming, and tearing np the 
railroad tracks and breaking the telegraph wires, armed 
themselves therewith, and awaited them at Forty-third 
street. The soldiers left the car, and Lieutenant Reed, 
after vainly directing the mob to disperse, committed 
the fatal mistake of ordering his men to fire blank 
cartridges. The farcical discharge exasperated the 
rioters, who sprang on the troops, wrenched their mus- 
kets from their hands, and beat and maltreated them. 
The unfortunate soldiers fled in every direction, pursued 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 823 

by the riotei's ; many were killed and nearly all severely 
injured. The police attempted to interfere, but were 
driven off" with the loss of one of their number. The 
sight of blood intoxicated the mob, who lost sight of 
the draft to enter upon a crusade of murder and 
plunder. After sacking and burning two private 
residences in Lexington Avenue, one of which they 
wrongly supposed to belong to a deputy provost-mar- 
shal, they proceeded to the office of Provost-Mai-shal 
Manierre, in Broadway, near Twenty-eighth street, 
where the draft had also been commenced in the morn- 
ing, but had been since suspended. A part of the crowd 
passed down Fifth Avenue. On their way they per- 
ceived the American ffag displayed in honor of the late 
victories, over the residence of Judge White, in Fifth 
Avenue, near Thirty-fifth street. They halted and cried. 
"Haul down that d— d rag!" The order remaining 
unheeded, they flung stones through the windows and 
were about to set fire to the house, when some one 
proposed that they should first burn the provost-mar- 
shal's office, whereupon they left, promising to return 
and complete their work. In a short time the whole 
block in Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty- 
ninth streets was in flames. The lower part was used 
for stores filled with costly articles, and the upper part 
was occupied as a fashionable boarding-house. The 
wildest confusion prevailed. The rioters rifled the build- 
ings of their contents, and the surrounding streets, 
usually the resort of fashionable promenaders, were 
soon filled with squahd men, women and children, laden 
with rich furniture, silver, and articles of wearing ap- 
parel. The neighborhood rang with the shouts and 
yells of the lawless mob. 



824 HISTORY OF THE 

From this place the mob j^i'oceeded to the Colored 
Orphan Asylum in Fifth Avenue, between Forty-third 
and Forty-fourth streets, the home of seven or eight 
hundred colored children, and proceeded to demolish 
the building in order to gratify their spite against the 
negroes, whom they regarded as the prime cause of the 
draft. This feeling rapidly developed, and become one 
of the most prominent features of the riot. The unfor- 
tunate negroes were everywhere hunted down ; the 
hotels and private houses where they were employed 
were attacked, and all who gave them shelter were 
threatened with violence. It is supposed that a 
dozen at least were brutally murdered during the 
course of the day. Some were driven into the river, 
and others beaten to death or suspended from the lamp- 
posts. One was thrown into a barrel of blazing whis- 
key ; another, after having been beaten till he was 
senseless, was hung to a tree over a fire, where he re- 
mained until midnight, when he was taken down by 
the police. The thieves of the city boldly joined the 
mob, which now thought only of plunder. The Bull's 
Head Tavern, on Forty-fourth street, was burned to 
the ground because the proprietor refused to supply 
the rioters with liquor. The residence Of Mayor Op- 
dyke was attacked, and Postmaster Wakeman's house 
at Yorkville was burned to the ground, together with 
the Twenty-Third Precinct station-house in the vicinity. 

In the afternoon Mayor Opdyke issued a proclama- 
tion warning the rioters to desist from their proceedings 
and return to their homes. At the same time he 
authorized loyal citizens to organize defences on their 
own premises, and to shoot down any one who should 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 825 

attempt to break in. A detachment of the poUce was 
sent to the Armory in Second Avenue, where a quan- 
tity of fire-arms was stored, and the superintendent was 
directed to arm his men, and to defend the building to 
the last extremity. The rioters made a furious onslaught 
on the premises, and were at first repulsed. They re- 
turned to the attack, and after a sharp conflict over- 
powered the defenders and fired the building, which 
fell, burying some of their number beneath the ruins. 

General Wool issued a proclamation to the veteran 
volunteers, requesting them to report the next morning 
at the police headquarters, at 300 Mulberry street, to 
aid in suppressing the riot. Meanwhile the work of 
devastation went on. The mob stopped the omnibuses, 
cars and carriages, broke the telegraph wires, and at- 
tacked and murdered the passers without provocation. 
No man of respectable appearance was safe. Toward 
evening an immense crowd assembled in Printing-House 
Square, in front of the Trihmie office, and, after threat- 
ening demonstrations, attacked the building. They 
forced the doors, broke the counters and furniture, and 
had already kindled a fire, when a detachment of the 
police charged upon them and put them to flight. This 
was an unusual circumstance ; in most of the collisions 
of the first day the police were overpowered. The most 
extravagant rumors were circulated ; it was reported 
that the rioters had seized the gas-works and the reser- 
voir, and were about to cut off the water and light. The 
inhabitants were panic-stricken ; they were generally 
unarmed, flight was impossible, and the city lay at the 
mercy of a brute crowd. It was a true reign of terror. 
None who passed through that terrible night will ever 



826 HISTORY OF THE 

forget its horrors. Mobs sprang up in all parts of the 
city, the horizon was illumined with the flames of blaz- 
ing houses in every direction, and the air rung with the 
yells of the rioters. Late in the evening a heavy shower 
extinguished the smouldering fires and cooled the fury 
of the crowd. 

The sun rose the next morning on a lugubrious scene. 
The usual street cries were hushed, and an appalling 
silence prevailed everywhere. No one ventured abroad, 
the tradesmen missed their daily rounds, and the break- 
fast-tables were left unsupplied. The stores were closed 
and the streets desei'ted, save by ruffianly men and 
fiendish women, who were seen prowling here and 
there, or occasionally a frightened negro crouching in a 
corner and wildly looking about for some means of 
escape. This day was even more fearful than the pre- 
ceding one. The mob early recommenced its fiendish 
work, burning houses, shooting men, and, above all, 
persecuting the negroes. How many of this unfortu- 
nate race perished on that fearful day will never be 
truly known. Their houses were burned over their 
heads, and those who escaped from the flames were 
hunted down and put to death relentlessly. Negroes 
were seen hanging all day from the lamp-posts, with- 
out any one having the courage to cut them down. 
Age or sex was no protection from these fiends, who 
for a few hours held the whole city at their feet. 

In obedience to the call of General Wool, the ex- 
officers of the returned regiments had met the evening 
before at the armory of the Seventh Regiment, and 
concerted measures for rallying their men on the next 
day, which was accordingly done. Several encounters 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 827 

took place between the military aud the rioters ; and 
whenever ball-cartridges were promptly used, the latter 
fled. Lieutenant Wood, at the head of a hundred and 
fifty soldiers from Fort Lafayette, attempted to disperse 
a mob of two thousand men, near the corner of Grand 
and Pitt streets, by ordering his troops to fire over their 
heads ; this unfortunate proceeding only exasperated 
the crowd, who answered with stones and other missiles. 
The troops at length aimed and fired at the rioters, who 
instantly dispersed, with a loss of twelve of their num- 
ber, two of whom were children. 

Early in the morning news was received that a large 
mob had gathered in Thirty-fourth street for the pur- 
pose of plundering aud burning the houses in that 
region. A squad of three hundred policemen, under 
Insj^ector Carpenter, was sent to the spot, and with 
some difficulty succeeded in dispersing the rioters. As 
they quitted the spot, they were met by Colonel H. T. 
O'Brien, of the Eleventh New York State Volunteers 
with a detachment of soldiers and two field-pieces. 
Perceiving that the mob was rallying again, they 
retraced their steps, and were met with a volley of 
paving-stones and other missiles ; without hesitation, 
they fired on the crowd, killing several, among others, 
a woman and two children. The I'ioters fled, uttering 
threats of vengeance against O'Brien. 

At noon a fierce battle was fought at the Union Steam 
Works, on the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty- 
second street, for the possession of the arms from the 
Armory, which had been secreted there the day before 
After a protracted contest, the police and military suc- 
ceeded in dispersing the rioters and taking from them 
a large quantity of arms. 



828 HISTORY OF THE 

Me;uuvliile, a bloody scene was being enacted close 
by. On returning to his head-quarters, Colonel O'Brien 
had learned that his house was attacked by the mob ; 
he instantly proceeded thither, and found it sacked 
from top to bottom. Anxious to learn the fate of his 
family, he quitted the place and entered a drug-store 
on the corner of Thirty-fourth street, which was in- 
di-rectly assailed with sticks and stones by the rioters. 
The proprietor entreated O'Brien to escape ; but fearing 
BO danger, he boldly stepped on the sidewalk to ex- 
postulate with the crowd, whereupon he was felled to 
the earth and stunned, after which his body was drag- 
ged for hours through the streets and exposed to the 
most brutal outrages. Two priests, who had been per- 
mitted to read the last prayers over the dying man, 
secretly carried his corpse by night in a cart to the 
dead-house at Bellevue. The mayor subsequently 
offered a special reward of five hundred dollars for the 
conviction of the perpetrators of this outrage, which 
was never avenged. 

At noon Governor Seymour arrived in the city and 
addressed a mild speech to the rioters from the steps of 
the City Hall, informing them that he had urged the 
government to consent to a suspension of the draft, and 
had been informed that it would be postponed. During 
the day the Common Council held a special meeting, 
aii>d unanimously adopted an ordinance appropriating 
$2,5O0,000 to pay the commutation of drafted men 
The mi.yor was urged to approve this ordinance at once, 
but firni\y refused to do so till he had given the subject 
mature fo^^gifJei-.^tiQ,^ . feeling, he said, that it would be 
pur has 11.^ the peace of the vAy too dearly thus to bow 



i 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 829 

to the dictation of the mob, and to nulUfy the draft by 
the expenditure of honor and the sacrifice of so much 
treasure. He afterwards vetoed the ordinance. 

At two in the afternoon the merchants and bankers 
assembled in force at the Merchants' Exchange, No. Ill 
Broadway, and on motion of John Austin Stevens, Jr., 
the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, unanimously 
resolved to close their places of business, and to meet on 
the south side of Wall street for immediate organization 
in companies of hundreds, pursuant to the call of the 
mayor, to aid in suppressing the riot. Meanwhile the 
mayor telegraphed to the secretary of war, requesting 
him to send a military force to the city. At the same 
time he issued a proclamation, requesting loyal citizens 
to report at the police headquarters. No. 300 Mulberry 
street, for the purpose of being sworn in as special 
policemen for the preservation of law and order. The 
venders of arms and ammunition were ordered to 
close their stores at once, and to cease selling to private 
persons ; while those citizens whose houses were threat- 
ened by the rioters were furnished with arms for their 
defence. An attack on the gas-works being appre- 
hended, the mayor directed a manufacturer of calcium 
lights to have a sufficient number of these lights in 
readiness to facilitate the movements of the forces in 
case of need. The gas-works, however, were not mo- 
lested. 

In the mean time the work of arson and pillage went on. 
Mr. Gibbons's house, in Lamartine Place, was sacked by 
the rioters, under the belief that it was the residence 
of Mr. Greeley, who chanced to be staying at the house 
of one of the editors of the Tribune on the same block. 



830 HISTORY OF THE 

AUerton's Hotel, the Weehawken Ferry-house, and the 
negro quarters in various parts of the city were burned 
during the day. At evening, the sky was ilkimined 
with the flames of the Eighteenth Precinct station- 
house, in East Twenty-second street, together with the 
fire-alarm bell-tower, No. 51 Engine House, and a 
number of private dwellings, among others, the resi- 
dence of Port Warden Peck, in East Thirty-third street. 
By this time, many of the citizens had armed their 
houses with muskets and hand-grenades, and in Print- 
ing-House Square two formidable rifled batteries, in 
front of the Tones office, overawed the mob, and pre- 
vented a recurrence of the scenes of the preceding 
night. 

On Wednesday, the 15th, it was evident that the 
riot had reached its climax, and was on the wane, for- 
midable as it still continued. The persecution of the 
negroes raged even worse than ever. The colored 
population were subjected to the most frightful atroci- 
ties ; all day long the bodies of negroes hung sus- 
pended from trees and lamp-posts in various parts of 
the city, after their houses had been burned over their 
heads. The principal fires on this day were a lumber- 
yard in Fourteenth street, and two large grain ele- 
vators in the Atlantic Dock Basin. The citizens, by 
this time, began to recover from their panic, and to 
take active measures for their protection. 

The secretar}' of war ordered home the regiments 
that were doing duty in Pennsylvania, while the police 
and military steadily gained the advantage in their 
collisions with the mob. On the afternoon of the 15th 
the mayor issued a proclamation, announcing that the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 831 

riot was in a great measure subduerl, with the excep- 
tion of the bands that were organized for the purpose 
of plunder, and requesting the citizens to form volun- 
taiy associations to patrol and guard their respective 
districts. He also declared that the lines of omnibuses, 
railroads and telegraphs, all of which had been sus- 
pended, must be put into full operation immediately, 
and promised them adequate military protection. On 
the evening of the 15th the Tenth and Fifty-sixth New 
York Regiments arrived from the seat of war, followed 
soon after by the Seventh, Eighth, Seventy-fourth 
and One Hundred and Sixty-second New York, and 
Twenty-sixth Michigan regiments. The news of 
the riot had fired the militia with indignation, and 
they were eager to reach the city to strike a blow 
at the dastardly enemy. At midnight on the 15th 
General Kilpatrick, who had obtained leave of ab- 
sence from the Army of the Potomac for the express 
purpose of coming to New York to subdue the 
riot, arrived, and was placed in command of all the 
cavalry in the city. The presence of these troops over- 
awed the mob, and the disturbance practically ceased 
on the 16th, though turbulent manifestations continued 
for some days after. It is just to say, however, that 
before the arrival of the militia, the combined action of 
the police and the citizens, together with the slender 
military force at the disposal of the authorities, had 
really sufficed to quell, in the short space of three days, 
one of the most formidable riots ever known. 

On the 16th Archbishop Hughes invited the rioters to 
assemble the next day, Friday, in front of his residence 
on the corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth 



832 HISTORY OF THE 

street, where he would address them. Some five 
or six thousand persons gathered on the spot. The 
archbishop appeared on the balcony in his pontifical 
robes, and exhorted his hearers to return to their homes, 
and to offer no further resistance to the government. 
The command was obeyed ; the crowd dispersed quietly, 
and no disturbance ensued. A large cavalry force 
patrolled the disaffected district during the night without 
opposition. The next morning seventy stands of arms 
and several casks of paving-stones, which had been 
secreted by the rioters, were found and captured. On 
the 17th the mayor issued a proclamation declaring that 
order was restored. A few days after a reward was 
offered for the conviction of tliose who had been guilty of 
murder or arson in the late riot. Many of the ringlead- 
ers were arrested and brought to trial ; some were con- 
victed and punished, but none in a degree commensurate 
with their crime. A man by the name of Andrews was 
accused of having been the most active of the rioters. 

In all probability the secret history of this terrible 
affair and its real instigators still remains unwritten. 
The number that perished therein is unknown. The 
killed and wounded were estimated by the police at one 
thousand. The mob and the colored population suffered 
most severely, the loss of the military forces and the 
police being comparatively slight. The city subse- 
quently paid about $1,500,000 in indemnification for 
the losses sustained through the riot. 

Had the militia been in New York, it is not probable 
that the riot would have lasted a single day. As it was, 
it is doubtful whether any outbreak of such magnitude 
was ever subdued in so short a time, with such slender 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 833 

forces and so little loss. The draft met with like oppo- 
sition everywhere ; in Boston a formidable riot broke 
out, which was suppressed by a strong military organi- 
zation, and similar disturbances occurred in several of 
the Eastern and Western States. The Common Coun- 
cil subsequently passed a relief bill to pay $300 com- 
mutation to every drafted man in indigent circum- 
stances. The draft was resumed in the autumn, and 
was peacefully concluded. 

New auxiliaries soon strengthened the army and les- 
sened the necessity of conscription. On the 3d of De- 
cember the Committee on Volunteering of the Union 
League Club obtained permission from the war depart- 
ment to raise a colored regiment, to be known as the 
Twentieth Regiment of Colored Troops, to whom no 
bounties would be paid, and who would receive ten 
dollars per month. In spite of these hard conditions, 
in fourteen days the work was so far advanced that the 
committee felt justified in applying for leave to raise 
another regiment, which was granted on the 5th of 
January, 18(34. On the 27th of January this regiment, 
the Twenty-sixth, was likewise full, and authority was 
asked and received to raise a third, the Thirty-first. 
On account of delay in obtaining arms, the Twentieth 
Regiment did not leave for New Orleans until the 5th 
of March, when, after a presentation of colors from the 
ladies of New York in front of the Club House, where 
they were addressed by Charles King, the president of 
Columbia College, they marched down Broadway a. 
thousand strong, escorted by the Club, amidst a bril- 
liant ovation, which exhibited a striking contrast to the 
scene of a few months before, when their race had been 
hunted through the streets. 53 



834 HISTORY OF TUE 

In December, 1863, C. Godfrey Gunther, a New 
York merchant, was elected mayor by the democratic 
party, who thus regained the ascendancy in the ex- 
ecutive department of the city government. 

The spring of 1864 was rendered noticeable by a 
series of fairs, held in all the large cities through the 
North, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary 
Commission. Chief among these was the great Metro- 
politan Fair in New York City, which was opened on 
the 5th of April, and which netted $1,100,000, for the 
reUef of the soldiers, a sum exceeding that produced by 
any other fair in the country. Two large buildings 
were erected for the purpose, one in Fourteenth street, 
near Sixth Avenue, and the other in Seventeenth street, 
on Union Square, both of which were filled with stalls 
loaded with articles for sale, and presided over by the 
most beautiful and fashionable women of the city. 
This fair was the ruling sensation of the day, and no 
pains were spared to render it attractive. The most 
striking feature in the Seventeenth street building was 
the Knickerbocker Kitchen, which was fitted up in the 
style of the old Dutch Colony times, with genuine relics 
furnished by the descendants of Stuyvesant and his 
contemporaries, who, arrayed in the fashion of those 
ancient times, served doughnuts and waffles to the 
curious spectators. The larger building in Fourteenth 
street contained several departments apart from the 
fair proper ; among others, a fine picture-gallery, rich 
in works of art, loaned or donated by the owners, a 
hall of arms and trophies, a curiosity-shop, which was a 
veritable bazaar of quaint relics, and a Sunny Side 
pavilion, wherein were assembled a choice collection 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 835 

of mementoes of Washington Irving, that kingly author 
to whom New York claims the lionor of having given 
birth, and whose early home, now swejit away by the 
tide of business, might long have been seen in William, 
between John and Fulton streets. The fair was in 
every respect a success, and remains one of the pleas- 
antest reminiscences of the times. A sanitary fair had 
been held in Brooklyn, in February, from which over 
five hundred thousand dollars were I'ealized. 

The opening of the campaign was gloomy. The 
Union forces met with reverse after reverse in Florida, 
Louisiana and North Carolina, and the bloody massacre 
at Fort Pillow filled the public mind with grief and 
indignation. Repeated calls were made for troops, and 
New York continued her inexhaustible supplies of men 
and money. According to the official report of the 
Committee on Volunteering, the total number of men 
furnished by New York City from the beginning of the 
war to the 1st of October, 1864, was one hundred and 
twenty-six thousand three hundred and ten. 

In March, Ulysses S. Grant was appointed Lieuten- 
ant-Genei'al, and placed in command of the armies of 
the United States. He immediately made preparations 
for an advance upon Richmond, and early in May the 
final struggle commenced, and with it the most sangui- 
nary season of the war. This bloody May will long be 
remembered ; the battles of the Wilderness and Spott- 
sylvania Court House, favorable as was their result, 
appalled the public by the terrible loss of life which 
they involved. The whole summer was one of combat ; 
but the era of decided success began with Farragut's 
victory in Mobile Bay ; the fall of Atlanta followed ; 



836 HISTORY OF THE 

then came Sheridan's famous ride through the Shenan- 
doah Valley, Stoneman's raid and Sherman's triumphal 
march along the seaboard ; and the year ended with the 
capture of Savannah and the fall of Fort Fisher. 

The presidential election was the great event of the 
autumn. A recurrence of the riots was apprehended 
in New York, and vigilant measures were taken by 
the authorities to provide against this emergency. A 
report having been spread that rebel agents in Canada 
designed to send large bodies of men into the United 
States, with a view to vote at the approaching election. 
General Dix, who was then in command of the Depart- 
ment of the East, issued an order requiring all persons 
from the insurrectionary States to report themselves for 
registry. In pursuance with this order, several hundred 
Southerners appeared at the head-quarters of General 
Peck, No. 37 Bleecker street, and were duly registered. 

On the 2d of November the mayor received a tele- 
gram from the secretary of war, informing him that 
there was a conspiracy on foot to fire the principal 
Northern cities on the day of the election. The mayor 
answered, expressing his disbelief in such an attempt, 
but promising to take precautions against it, and to 
invoke the Federal assistance if necessary. The gov- 
ernment deemed it advisable, however, without inter- 
fering with the election, to procui'e ample means of 
protection, and for this purpose, despatched General 
Butler from Fortress Monroe to New York, to take 
command of the troops in the city, where he arrived on 
the 4th of November. On the ensuing Monday seven 
thousand troops landed at Fort Hamilton and Gov- 
ernor's Island. The next morning these troops were 



CITY OF X E W Y O R K . 837 

embarked on steamers and stationed off the Battery, 
and in the North and East Rivers, where they remained 
for the next three daj's, within call in case of need. 
The day passed off quietly, and Abraham Lincoln was 
the second time elected President of the United States. 

The alarm had not been groundless ; scarcely were 
the troops removed from the city, when on the night 
of the 25th of November the St. James, St. Nicholas 
and Metropolitan Hotels, Lafarge House, Barnum's 
Museum, United States Hotel, Astor House, Love- 
joy's Hotel, Tammany Hotel, New England House, 
Howard House, Belmont House, Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
Hartford Hotel, and some shipping and a lumber 
yard on the North River, were one after the other 
discovered to be in flames. The incendiaries, fur- 
nished with small travelling bags containing the ma- 
terials for destruction, had taken rooms at the divers 
hotels like ordinary lodgers, and closing the shut- 
ters of their apartments, had toni up the bedding, 
saturated it and the furniture with phosphorus and 
turpentine, and, after lighting a slow match, locked 
the doors and left the houses to burn with their inmates. 
The precautions which they had taken to avert a pre- 
mature discovery foiled the attempt ; the flames were 
smothered in the tightly closed rooms, and were speedily 
extinguished. One of the participators in this horrible 
crime, Robert Kennedy, was subsequently arrested and 
hung, having first confessed that he had formed one of 
a party of eight, organized for the purpose of firing the 
principal buildings in New York City, in retaliation for 
Sheridan's raid in the Shenandoah Valley. 

In the autumn of 1864 Professor Goldwin Smith 



838 HISTORY OF THE 

visited the United States to witness the jM-esidential 
election, and was received with enthusiasm, as the rep- 
resentative of the band that had nobly upheld the cause 
of the Union in Europe from the beginning of the 
struggle. Prominent among these were Cobden, Bright, 
Mill, Cairnes and Smith, in England ; and De Gasparin, 
Laboulaye, Cochin and Martin in France. Count De 
Gasparin was the earliest champion of the North in 
Europe ; his book, The Uprising of a Great People, 
which was published in Paris almost simultaneously 
with the breaking out of the conflict, appeared in New 
York about the time of the disaster of Bull Run, and 
flashed like inspiration from Maine to California, ro- 
viving the drooping spirits of the nation. Augustin 
Cochin's great work on the abolition of slavery ap- 
peared just before the emancipation proclamation, and 
equalled a whole phalanx in support of that beneficent 
measure ; Edouard Laboulaye, by his brilliant lectures 
before the College of France and his successful extrava- 
ganza, Paris in America, did more than almost any other 
man to mould French jjublic opinion in favor of the 
Union ; and Henri Martin, the celebrated historian, never 
failed in all his writings to express his cordial sympathy 
with the American Republic. Across the Channel, 
John Bright, Richard Cobden, John Stuart Mill and 
Professors Cairnes and Smith, labored with equal zeal 
to defend the North against the bias of their govern- 
ment, which so nearly involved us in foreign war. 
This brilliant galaxy of names will rank side by side 
with that of Lafayette and Beaumarchais in the eyes of 
posterity. Goldwin Smith met a cordial welcome in 
New York. On the 12th of November a public recep- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 839 

tion was given him by the Uiiioii League Ckib, at their 
rooms in Union Square, where a magnificent banquet 
was served, presided over by Charles Butler, of New 
York, at which a large number of the most distin- 
guished men of the country were present, together 
with Auguste Laugel, the able advocate of the Union 
in the columns of Revue des Biiex Mondes. 

At the risk of some repetition, we recur to the Union 
League Club, in order to give in this place a brief sketch 
of its rise and progress, without which a chronicle of the 
times would be signally incomplete, and which must 
remain a matter of historic interest in the annals of 
New York. 

The part borne through the war by the club, which 
the Hon. Schuyler Colfax, speaker of the House of 
Representatives, fitly characterized as that "noble or- 
ganization on which the government leaned in the 
darkest hours of trial and peril," forms so illustrious a 
feature in the recent history of New York, that some 
sketch of its organization,, progress and results becomes 
a necessary appendage to a complete history of the 
national metropolis. The proposition of Mayor Fer- 
nando Wood in January, 1861, that the City of New 
York should withdraw, not simply from the Union, but 
from the State, and become a free city, aflbrded a strik- 
ing proof of the absence of national American sentiment 
in the democratic masses, to whose sympathies the 
mayor appealed ; and the subsequent efforts of leading 
democrats to secure, through Lord Lyons, British inter- 
vention in our domestic afl'airs, indicated the strength 
of their feeling in behalf of the rebellion, and the 
grounds upon which its leaders had confidently counted 



840 HISTORY OF THE 

upon the effective sympathy of New York. Subsequent 
exhibitions of that same un-American sentiment were 
afforded by Mayor Gunther's attempt to arrest the 
foreign emigration, which flowed in as life-blood to 
invigorate the repubhc in the struggle, and to check 
the joy of our citizens at the victories of our soldiers 
and the triumph of the American flag. 

In January, 1863, the Union League Club was formed 
by gentlemen who had already, for some two years, 
been associated in the effort to encourage and sustain 
the government in the struggle with the rebellion, and 
who now found it essential to present an united front in 
behalf of the true spirit of the nation against the in- 
sidious treason which lurked all around them, and 
against " the dwarfed and pinched ideas of a nationality 
which, unable to embrace the expanse of a continent, 
or the dignity and welfare of a nation, was restricted to 
the interest of a faction, the confines of a state, even 
the suburbs of a city." They felt that the purifying of 
the social circles of the national metropolis would tend 
more than anything else to brighten everywhere the 
national atmosphere. 

The call issued was for the formation of a club, to be 
known as "The National Club," the object of which 
should be to cultivate a profound national devotion, as 
distinguished from state or sectional feeling, to strength- 
en a love and respect for the Union and discourage 
whatever tended to give undue prominence to purely 
local interests, to discuss and urge upon public attention 
large and noble schemes of national advancement, to 
elevate and uphold the popular faith in republican 
government, to dignify politics as a pursuit and a study, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 841 

to awaken a practical interest in public allairs in thotse 
who had become discouraged, to enforce a sense of the 
sacred obligations inherent in citizenship, and finally to 
bring to bear upon the national life all that a body of 
earnest and patriotic men could accomplish by united 
effort. 

The call was promptly responded to by the influen- 
tial gentlemen to whom it was addressed, and on the 
6th of February the articles of association were adopted 
under the name of "The Union League Club." 

The articles were brief and simple, and appealed to 
loyal citizens of all parties. They read as follows : 

"1. The condition of membership shall be absolute 
"and unqualified loyalty to the government of the 
"United States, and unwavering support of its efforts 
"for the suppression of the rebellion. 

" 2. The primary object of the association shall be to 
"discountenance and rebuke by moral and social iufiu- 
" ences all disloyalty to the Federal Government, and 
"to that end the members will use evei-y proper means 
" in public and private. 

" 3. We pledge ourselves by every means in our 
"power, collectively and individually, to resist to the 
"uttermost every attempt against the territorial integ- 
"rity of the nation." 

The five hundred members who were presently en- 
rolled largely represented the olden respectability and 
the substantial worth of New York. Among the great 
commercial names were those of Astor, Bininger, Benk- 
ard, Brooks, Brown, Chittenden, Constable, Delano, 
Drew, Forbes, Grinnell, Greene, Griswold, Haggerty, 
Hall, Jones, Lorillard, Le Roy, Marshall Minturn, Nye, 



842 HISTORY OF THE 

Parish, Poll, Prime, Roosevelt, Sherman, Schultz, Spof- 
ford, Stewart, Schieflelin, Sturges, Yermilye and 
Wolfe. Descendants of the Dutch, English and Hugue- 
nots prominent in our colonial and revolutionary history, 
appear in the names of Beekman, De Forest, De Peys- 
ter. Pish, Gerry, Hamilton, Jay, King, Murray, Putnam, 
Stuyvesant, Suydam, Van Duzen, Van Nostrand, Van 
Rensselaer, Van Wart, Van Winkle and Winthrop. 
Names of note in Ameiican literature, law, science and 
art: Bancroft, Bristed, Bryant, Butler, Irving, Sedg- 
wick, Webster, Tuckerman ; Bonney, Evarts, Bowne, 
Cutting, Emmet, Murray, Hoffman, Noyes, Stoughton, 
Strong and Swan ; LeGrand Cannon, Cyrus Field, 
Cisco, Bacon, Delafield, Doremus and Joy ; Blodgett, 
Cropsey, Hunt, Johnston, Kensett ; with such repre- 
sentation of modern Europe as Iselin from France, Det- 
mold and Lieber from Germany, and Botta from Italy. 

In March a committee of five were appointed to 
confer with similar committees of the Union League 
Clubs in Philadelphia and Baltimore, with reference to 
the establishment of a common basis of action, and in 
April a committee of one hundred gentlemen from the 
Philadelphia Club, embracing names equally eminent in 
law, literature, science, and commerce, came to New 
York, were welcomed by the Union League in their 
new Club House, entertained at Delmonico's, and 
assisted at the grand Sumter celebration in. Union 
Square. 

On the Fourth of July the Clubs had arranged for a 
joint celebration of the day, and a further conference 
at Philadelphia ; but the rebel invasion of Pennsylvania 
gave to the national anniversary new memories on the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 843 

field of Gettysburg, and soon afterwards in New York, 
where the leaders of the rebellion were prepared in 
case Lee had been victorious to inaugurate "the Fourth " 
by a revolutionary coup d] etat, the rebel element, dis- 
appointed by the great victory of Meade, broke out in 
riots, robbei-y, arson, and murder, in which a brutality 
that might have shocked the Jacobins of Paris, was 
inaugurated against the negroes, until the military and 
metropolitan pohce, with a slender force, but a most 
gallant spirit, met and checked the rioters with so firm 
a hand that with their dispersion and defeat perished the 
last hope of the rebels of inaugurating a successful North- 
ern insurrection against nationality, liberty and law. 

The Club resolved to exert its already large influence 
in the approaching presidential election for the success 
of the Union cause, and on the evening of the 8th of 
November, 1863, they had the satisfaction of knowing 
that the State of New York was agahi arrayed on the 
side of nationality and freedom, and that the re-election 
of Mr. Lincoln ensured the life of the republic. 

The same month the Committee on Volunteering, con- 
sisting of Messrs. Van Rensselaer, Carman, Roosevelt, 
Cowdin, Kirkland, Bacon, Bhss, Schultz and Cromwell, 
after a vain effort to procure any authority or sanction 
from Governor Seymour, was authorized by the War 
Department to raise the Twentieth United States 
Regiment of colored troops, and the work proceeded so 
rapidly under the direction of Mr. Vincent CoUyer, that, 
as we have already mentioned, in fourteen days the 
committee apphed for authority to raise a second regi- 
ment, the Twenty-sixth United States colored troops, 
and this again was succeeded by a third. 



844 



HISTORY OF THE 



The Twentieth Reghuent, as before described, on the 
5th of March, was reviewed in front of the Ckib House 
in Union Square, where it was presented with a banner 
prepared by the mothers, wives and sisters of the mem- 
bers of the Club, accompanied by an address written by 
the poet, Henry J. Tuckermau, and signed by the do- 
nors.* The regiment, after an address by Mr. Charles 
King, and a response by the commanding officer, Colonel 
Bartram, marched down Broadway escorted by the Club, 
and from that day, when in our streets, colored men were 
welcomed with an ovation instead of a massacre, it was 
clear that thenceforth in New York black men had 
rights which white men were bound to respect. 

On the morning of Easter Sunday, the 27th of March, 
the Twenty-sixth Regiment embarked for Annapolis, 
attended by a few ladies and gentlemen on board the 
steamer, where the colors prepared for them were pre- 



* These names are worthy of record as indicating to future generations the part 
borne, in one of the most significant events of the war — for the action of New York 
in the case influenced the sentiment of the whole country— by the women who 
so prominently represented the national sentiment as well as the culture and refine- 
ment of the republic. 



Mrs. J. J. Aster, 
" G. W. Blunt, 
" J. W. Beekman, 
" S. Wetmore, 
" S. B. Chittenden, 
" G. BUss, Jr., 
" S. J. Bacon, 
" R. B. Mintum, 
" Charles King, 
" S. W. Bridgham, 
" W. E. Dodge, 
" R. Stebbins, 
" S. B. Schieffelin, 

Miss King, 

Mrs. J. B. Johnson, 
" N. D. Smith, 
" T. M. Cheesman, 
" H. A. Coit, 
" A. P. Mann, 



Mrs. J. W. Bigelow, 

" M. O. Roberts, 

" H. K. Bogart, 

" E. C. Hall, 

" J. Le Roy, 

" J. Brown, 

" M. Clarkson, 

" J. 0. Stone, 

" J. G. King, Jr., 

" H. Van Rensselaer. 

" J. A. King, Jr., 

" J. C. Cassegee, 

" J. L. Kennedy, 

" F. Prime, 

" Barnwell, 

" Wheelwright, 

" E. Collins, 

" Bradisli, 

" Bruce. 



Mrs. J. McKaye, 

" W. L. Felt, 

" F. Haskell, 

" Isaac Ames, 

" L. F. Warner, 

" A. G. Phelps, 

" N. Chandler, 

" H. Potter, 

" P. S.Van Renselaer, 

" Walter. 

" H. Baldwin, 

" H. G. Thomson, 

" F. C. Peudexter, 

" H. C. Chapman, 

" G. Bancroft, 

" M. K. Jessup, 

" J. 0. B. Davis, 

" W. H. Schieffelin, 

" C C. Dodge, 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



845 



sented by Mr. John Jay, whose address was earnestly 
responded to by Colonel Silliman, who soon after fell in 
defence of the flag to which he touchingly declared the 
devotion of his soldiers and himself. These two regi- 
ments and the Thirty-first, which Avas next filled up by 
the Club, exhibited in their career during the war, 
combined with an admirable drill and discipline, a spirit 
of earnest patriotism and fearless bravery. A second 
Committee on Volunteering, consisting of Messrs. Bliss, 
Roosevelt, Handy, Hyatt, Hoyt, Swift, Schultz, Wil- 
liams, Fogg, Murdock, Fellows, Fuller, Halstead, Sat- 
terlee, Churchill and Grinnell, was appointed at the 
request of General Hancock to recruit for the Second 
Corps. They raised some $230,000 and upwards of 
three thousand men, making the total of troops placed 
in the field by the Club wdthin the year six thousand 
men. 



Mrs. J. J. Phelps, 

" G. B. De Forest, 

" Le G. B. Cannou 

" W. A. Butler, 

•' U. A. Murdock, 

" A. Dunlap, 

" T. E. Howe, 

" W. H. Lee, 

" W. E. Dodge, Jr., 

" David Hoadly, 

" 0. Luddington, 

" G. Lemist, 

" E. C. Cowdin, 

" J. A. Roosevelt, 

" J. Sampson, 

" R. B. Mintum, Jr., 

" Alfred PeU, Jr., 

" W. Hutchins, 

" Geo. Opdyke, 

" G. C. Ward, 

" 0. G. Judson, 

" S. W. Roosevelt, 

" E. D. Smith, 

" S. Gandy, 

" R. L. Stuart, 

" E. W. Stoughton, 



Mrs. Tuekerman, 

" Shaw, 

" Williams, 

" P. Richards, 

" R. Winthrop, 

" Weeks, 

" Jaques, 

" A. Brooks, 

" W. Felt, 

" J. W. Goddard, 

" F. G. Shaw, 

" R. G. Shaw. 

" G. W. Curtis, 

" R. C. Lovell, 

" C. M. Kirkland, 

" B. De Forest, 

" Boerum, 

" Hamilton Fish, 

" Alfred FeU, 

" Kennedy, 

" J. Johnston, 

" T. L. Beekman, 

" J. F. Gray, 

" J. Tuekerman, 

" F. A. Whittaker, 

" J. H. Maey, 



Mrs. John Jay, 

" E. M. Young, 

" J. T. Schultz, 

" J. E. Brenly, 

" H. Chauncy, 

" R. M. Hunt, 

" Jones, 

Miss J. Schieffelin. 

" Fish, 

" Jay, 

" Anna Jay, 

" Young, 

" Schultz. 

" Russel, 

" J. M. King, 

" Cochrane, 

Vincent Colyer, 

■' C. C. Hunt, 

'■ G. Williams, 

" E. H. Chauncy, 

" E. W. Cruger, 

" W. C. Bryant, 

" F. B. Goodwin, 

" Emily Boerum, 

Miss Norsworthy. 

" F. H. Macy, 



M 



840 HISTORY OF THE 

Another was the "Protective War-Chiim Associatiun 
" and Employment Bureau for Discharged and Disabled 
" Soldiers," under the direction of Messrs. Howard Pot- 
ter, Wm. E. Dodge and Theo. Roosevelt. 

A happy thought happily executed in November, was 
that of providing a thanksgiving dinner for our soldiers 
and sailors. Gen. Grant afforded every assistance for 
the distribution of the gifts to the Army of the Shenan- 
doah, to the Atlantic Squadron, to the Armies of the 
Potomac and the James, and to some fifteen forts and 
hospitals, remarking that "it was not the bit of turkey 
"that the soldiers would care for, but the thought that 
"they were kindly remembered at the North." 

In January, 1865, the before-mentioned Soldiers' 
Rest was established in New York for the comfort of 
soldiers passing through the city, under the care of 
Messrs. Dale, Hayes, Schultz, Lawrence, Bliss and 
Howe ; and the same month the Club despatched a 
committee to Washington to urge the adoption of the 
Constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. The 
committee remained at the capital until that great 
work was accomplished, and in their report sketched 
the memorable scene in the House on the adoption of 
the amendment. 

After the murder of President Lincoln, the Club was 
represented at his funeral at Washington, and the com- 
mittee the next day waited upon President Johnson, 
the secretaries of the departments and the chief justice, 
giving assurance that the Club on that momentous occa- 
sion renewed its engagements of loyalty and service 
towards the government and the country. In reply to 
an address made him by Mr. Jay, on behalf of the Club, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 847 

President Johnson, after thanking the Clnl) for their 
encouragement as "especially appropriate," assured 
them that "the idea that justice should be observed 
"was one that had strongly impressed him," that " all 
"crimes were submerged in treason, and that we must 
" look to it in this light in the carrying out of stern, 
" inflexible justice." 

In July the Club took effective measures for the suit- 
able care and reception of regiments returning from the 
war, and Gov. Fenton, in returning thanks to the Club 
on behalf of the State and of the soldiers, whose welfare 
it had largely promoted, said : 

" It is a source of grateful feeling and pride that the 
"wise and humane provisions of the State have been 
" encouraged and advanced by your body. An associ- 
" ation which had its origin in the patriotic impulse 
" stimulated by the war and the necessity of systematized 
"effort, may properly receive the thanks of an apprecia- 
"tive people, and be proud of a record which declares 
"it faithful in the beginning, hopeful, watchful and 
"unwearied during the period of greatest despondency 
" and gloom, and devoted, sympathizing and humane to 
"the brave defenders of our Union in the end." 

In the work of reconstruction the Club spoke awd 
acted with the same distinctness and promptitude as it 
had done during the war. 

In June, 1865, with but one dissenting voice, it "in- 
" yoked the influence of the national authorities in the 
" establishing of a system of suffrage in the late rebel- 
"lious States, which shall be equal and just to all with- 
" out distinction of color," and soon afterwards it ap- 
pointed a committee to co-operate with the "New York 



848 H I S T RY OF THE 

"National Froedmen's Relief Association," in securing 
among the negroes the general diffusion of education. 

In March, 1865, it gave its approval to the action of 
Congress on the subject of reconstruction, in April 
it endorsed the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, and in 
September, 1866, the Club invited and entertained at 
New York the Convention of Southern Loyalists who 
had met at Philadelphia. 

In January, 1866, the main object of the Club, the 

preservation of the country, having been accomplished, 

it adopted a new article making it " the duty of 

'the Club to resist and expose corruption and promote 

' reform in our national, state and municipal affairs, and 

■'to elevate the idea of American citizenship." 

The influence of the Club has already secured for 
New York a Paid Fire Department and a Board of 
Health, and it has spoken with great effect upon the 
subject of legislative corruption, rousing the attention 
of the State and the nation to the fatal consequences of 
permitting government to be converted by lawless poli- 
ticians into a machine for plundering and oppressing the 
people. In pursuance of the latter object, a committee 
of eleven was appointed by it to suggest changes in 
the government of the city to the Constitutional 
Convention. 

Among the duties early assumed, and always grace- 
fully performed by the Club, has been that of extending 
a cordial welcome to all entitled to such an honor. It 
thus received, during and since the war, Lieutenant- 
General Grant and his most eminent commanders ; 
Admiral Farragut, Ditpont, Rogers, Winslow, after 
destroying theKearsarge,and Cushing, after sinking the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 849 

Albemarle ; the governors of States ; Fessenden, Sher- 
man and others of the Senate ; and Speaker Colfax 
and promhient members of the House. Among the 
honors jjaid at the Club House to foreigners, the break- 
fast to Professor Goldwin Smith was perhaps the most 
memorable, from the brilliancy of the circle then assem- 
bled. Some of the ablest of the statesmen and jjubli- 
cists of Europe are occasional correspondents of the Club, 
and among the portraits that adorn its walls are those 
of Cobden and Bright, Laboulaye and Gasparin. The 
artists of New York, than whom there was no more 
loyal class during the war, are prominently represented, 
and an Art Committee, composed of Messrs. Putnam, 
Kensett, Cropsey, Colyer, Butler, Stone and Holbrook, 
adorn the club room at the monthly meetings with 
works of art from the studios of the city, which are left 
open for inspection by the wives and daughters of the 
members. The Club has recently resolved, on the sug- 
gestion of Mr. Alexander T. Stewart, to raise half a 
million dollars for the erection of a new Club House, 
and the work is entrusted to a committee of which 
Mr. Stewart is the chairman. The presidents of the 
Club have been Robert B. Minturn, Jonathan Sturges, 
Charles H. Marshall and John Jay. Of these Messrs. 
Minturn and Marshall are deceased. 

It has been well said that the community, with pride 
and affection, recognizes in the Club "a great j^ower 
"employed with generous and earnest zeal in the pro- 
emotion of patriotism, humanity and justice. . . . Ever 
" foremost in duty, it has never broken ranks. . . . The 
" Club has no long history to point back to, but it has 
'lived long enough to see every principle and every 
54 



•850 HISTORY OF THE 

"measure which it has vindicated honorably suc- 
cessful." 

The year 1865 opened brilliantly with the fall of 
Fort Fisher. Victories crowded upon each other ; the 
capture of Columbia and Savannah, the brilliant raid 
of Sheridan, the successful advance of the Army of the 
Potomac, and, last of all, the fall of Richmond on the 
3d of April, dazzled the public mind. A New Yorker, 
Lieutenant De Peyster, a member of one of the most 
distinguished of the Knickerbocker families, was the 
first to raise the National flag anew over the Confede- 
rate Capitol. The news of the fall of Richmond was 
received in New York with unbounded rejoicing. The 
whole city seemed intoxicated with delight. The 
streets were thronged with joyous crowds, flags were 
displayed everywhere, and the air rang with the 
booming of cannon and the chimes of bells in honor of 
the virtual termination of the great conflict. The 
surrender of Lee, on the 9th of April, left only a hand- 
ful of insurgents in the field, who were subdued in the 
course of a few months. 

The interval between joy and mourning was short. 
On the morning of the 15th of April the whole com- 
munity was paralyzed by the announcement that the 
President of the United States had been stricken down, 
the night before, by the bullet of an assassin, and that 
the secretary of state and his son had been attacked 
and well nigh murdered. As if by a spontaneous 
impulse, scarcely was the news received at half-past 
seven, that the President had breathed his last, when 
the whole city, from the most sumptuous edifices to the 
Humblest tenements, appeared draped in mourning. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 851 

Business was entirely suspended, the stores were closed, 
and the streets were thronged with crowds bewailing 
the loved head of the nation, and breathing forth 
vengeance on his murderers. Never before was such a 
scene beheld in busy New York, thus suddenly trans- 
formed into a city of mourners. At twelve o'clock, an 
immense meeting assembled at the Custom House. 
Simeon Draper, the collector of the port, was chosen 
president, Moses Taylor and Moses H. Grinnell, vice- 
presidents, and Henry M. Taber and S. B. Chittenden, 
secretaries. The meeting was addressed by Genei'als 
Wetmore, Garfield and Butler, Ex-Governor King, 
Daniel S. Dickinson, Judge Pierrepont, and several 
others, and a committee of thirteen citizens of New 
York was appointed to be sent to Washington to 
attend the funeral of the President, and to tender all 
needful aid and sympathy to the government. This 
committee consisted of Moses Taylor, Jonathan Sturges, 
William E. Dodge, Hamilton Fish, Moses H. Grinnell, 
WiUiam M. Evarts, Charles H. Russell, Edwards Pierre- 
pont, Samuel Sloan, John J. Astor, Jr., F. B. Cutting, 
R. M. Blatchford, and Charles H. Marshall. It was 
also recommended that all places of business and of 
public amusement should remain closed until after the 
funeral of the President. 

At one o'clock, a meeting was held at the Chamber 
of Commerce, at which Charles H. Marshall acted as 
chairman, and John Austin Stevens as secretary. The 
rooms of the Chamber were hung with mourning. 
Resolutions expressive of respect for the memory of 
Mr. Lincoln, and of condolence with his f\\mily, and 
that of Mr. Seward, were unanimously adopted, and 



852 HISTORY OF THE 

the meeting joined with that at the Custom House m 
recommending the closing of all places of business and 
amusement until after the obsequies of the President. 
The Boards of Stock Brokers and Gold Brokers 
adjourned at once, without transacting any business. 
In Nassau street, in front of the Post Office, a large 
concourse of citizens was addressed by General Burn- 
side. The Courts and Boards of Aldermen, Councilmen 
and Supervisors adjourned, after passing resolutions of 
condolence with the nation in its affliction. The chief 
of the police acted on the recommendation of the 
merchants, and issued an order directing that all places 
of amusement should remain closed until after the 
burial of the President, a course which had been previ- 
ously resolved upon by the Association of New York 
Managers. The pervading thought of the city was 
grief and indignation at this base assassination ; and it 
is just to say that this indignation seemed universal, 
and with scarcely an exceptioii, was shared by those 
who had sympathized with the South during the 
struggle. 

The death of the martyred President was the general 
topic of discourse the next day in the Christian 
churches, as it had been the day before in the Jewish 
synagogues. From that time until the remains of 
President Lincoln passed through New York on their 
way to their final resting place in Illinois, the city was 
engrossed in preparations to do honor to the illustrious 
dead. The 19th of April, a date memorable in the 
annals of America, was observed as a day of mourning 
by the whole nation. On that day, funeral services 
were performed at the White House, and the body of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 853 

Mr. Lincoln was removed to the Capitol, where it lay 
in state until the morning of the 21st, when the funeral 
train set out for Illinois by nearly the same route as 
that taken by Mr. Lincoln on his way to Washington 
in 1861. His was a triumphal, though mournful return. 
The districts which had then been most hostile, now 
received him with reverence ; Baltimore, through 
which he had passed secretly by night, and which had 
justified this precaution by shooting down the Union 
soldiers a few weeks after, greeted the mournful 
procession with the deepest respect, as did all other 
places on the route. 

By night and day the funeral train passed through a 
crowd of mourners. Lnposing as were the demonstra- 
tions everywhere else, they were surpassed by the City 
of New York. The City Hall had been prepared for 
the reception of the honored remains, which were es- 
corted thither from the Cortlandt Street Ferry, upon 
their arrival on the 24th of April, by a sea of human 
beings ; while minute guns were fired along the entire 
route, and the bells of all the churches tolled mourn- 
fully. The coffin was borne into the rotunda of the 
City Hall, amid the chanting of eight hundred singers, 
and placed on the magnificent catafalque which had 
been prepared for it, where it remained buried beneath 
flowers until the afternoon of the next day. An im- 
mense procession of people, miles in length, had already 
formed, and during the whole twenty-four hours this 
stream of men, women and children slowly filed 
through the City Hall, to look for the last time on the 
face of the dead President. A large military guard 
kept constant watch over the remains, and at midnight 



854 HISTORY OF THE 

the German musical societies performed a solemn chant 
in the rotunda of the City Hall. When the time 
arrived for departure, thousands who had waited iu line 
for hours to pay their last respects to the dead, were 
obliged to turn away disappointed. 

On the afternoon of the 25th of April New York 
City took its final leave of President Lincoln. The 
remains were escorted to the railroad depot by a pro- 
cession nearly five miles iu length, composed of a mili- 
tary force of more than fifteen thousand men, together 
with numerous civic officers and societies. Last in the 
procession marched two thousand colored citizens. 
Along the whole line the streets were thronged with 
mourners. Every window and balcony was filled, and 
every house was shrouded in funereal drapery. Even 
the denizens of the poorest quarters of the city, who 
could scarce buy bread, eked out the means to provide 
shreds of crape, by which to express their sorrow ; 
while the most tasteful arches, inscriptions and mourn- 
ing devices lined the streets through which the funeral 
train passed. A large assemblage met in the afternoon 
in Union Square to listen to a funeral oration from the 
Hon. George Bancroft, and an eulogy from William Cul- 
len Bryant. On the 3d of May, after a journey of more 
than seventeen hundred miles, the funeral party reached 
Springfield, Illinois, and on the next day the remains of 
President Lincoln were laid to rest in Oak Ridge Ceme- 
tery, ne.ar by. 

In the spring of 1865 an important change was 
efiected in the municipal affairs by the substitution of a 
paid Fire Department for the volunteer Fire Department 
that had hitherto existed. On the 30th of March the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



855 




Lower Arseaal. 



Legislature passed an act providing for the creation of 
a board of four fire commissioners, to be appointed by 
the governor, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, who were to have control of the new Fire De- 
partment. Charles C. Pinckney, James W. Booth, 
Philip W. Engs and Martin B. Brown were appointed 
commissioners, and on the 2d of May, the paid Fire 
Department was organized. A radical change was at 
once effected in the prevailing system : steam fire-en- 
gines were everywhere adopted within the limits of the 
city proper in lieu of the old hand-engines, the telegraph 
facilities were improved, and many important ameliora- 
tions were made. The innovation at first called forth 
the most violent opposition from the members of the 
former organization, who protested that the act was 



856 HISTORY OF THE 

unconstitutional. The case was carried before the 
Court of Appeals, which affirmed the constitutionality 
of the law. Fears were entertained lest the antagonism 
of the volunteer firemen, some of whom at first assumed 
a position of open hostility, and refused to surrender 
the property of the Fire Department, might endanger the 
city in case of conflagration ; the opposition, however, 
was peacefully subdued with no more agitation than 
might have been expected from so important a trans- 
formation. 

One of the most strikingly beautiful buildings erected 
in New York during this year was the National Academy 
of Design, on the corner of Twenty-third street and 
Fourth Avenue, a tasteful structure of graywacke and 
white marble, which is one of the architectural orna- 
ments of the city. The first organized effort to estab- 
lish an art institution in the city was that of the "New 
" York Academy of Fine Arts," in 1802, which was char- 
tered in 1808, under the name of the Academy of Arts, 
with Robert R. Livingston as president, John Trumbull 
as vice-president, and De Witt Clinton as secretary, 
Trumbull being the only artist. The first exhibition 
was held in Greenwich street, near Morris, in a building 
formerly used as a circus. In 1825 an association was 
formed by the artists of the city under the name of the 
New York Drawing Association, which was afterwards 
organized under the name of the National Academy of 
the Arts of Design, with S. F. B. Morse as the first 
president. The first public exhibition of the new acad- 
emy took place in May, 1826, in the house on the 
south-west corner of Bi'oadway and Reade street. The 
room in which the exhibition was held was in the second 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 857 

story, and was lighted with gas, six burners in all for 
the whole exhibition, which consisted of one hundred 
and seventy pictures. From this small beginning grew 
the present Academy of Design. 

Perhaps the most noticeable fire of the year was that 
of Barnum's Museum, on the corner of Broadway and 
Ann street, which was burned on the 13th of July; an 
old landmark, which has since been replaced by the 
Herald building. 

A tragic event that occurred in the autumn excited 
great attention. On the 12th of November, the Hon. 
Preston King, who had superseded Simeon Draper a 
short time before in the post of collector of the port of 
New York, stole from his hotel early in the morning, 
purchased a bag of shot of twenty-five pounds in 
weight, suspended it around his neck, proceeded to 
the Hoboken ferry-boat, and sprang from the deck while 
crossing the river. The cares of the office had unseated 
his reason. A diligent search w'as instituted for his body, 
which was discovered some time after. Henry A. 
Smythe, an eminent New York banker, was appointed 
in his stead. 

In December John T. Hoffman, the democratic 
candidate, was elected mayor, and was inaugurated in 
office on the 1st of January, 1866. 

After the excitement of the last five stirring years, 
the chronicle of the opening era of peace seems 
uneventful. The victories of 1866 were bloodless ones. 
Chief among them was that attained over the fetters of 
space by the successful laying of the Atlantic Telegraph 
Cable, the crowning event, not only of the year, but 
also of the century ; and this gigantic project originated 



858 H I S T O RY F T H E 

in New York City, and was due solely to the energy 
and pei'severauce of a New York merchant, without 
whose untiring zeal and devotion it is scarcely likely 
that our generation would have seen the continents 
linked together by an electric bridge. This fact will 
warrant us in devoting some space to a brief sketch of 
this miracle of the age, which may in some sort be 
regarded as belonging peculiarly to New York.* 

Whatever visions may have been entertained of a 
remote possibility that Europe and America might some 
daj^ be telegTaphically united, the first idea of jDracti- 
cally effecting this communication belongs indisputably 
to Cyrus W. Field, a New York merchant, who, after 
retiring from business to enjoy a life of leisure, entered 
the arena again for the ^aurpose of securing the triumjsh 
of this great scheme to which he devoted twelve years 
of unheard-of disappointment and fatigue, seeing his 
hopes dashed to the gi-ouud again and again, giving up 
all the comforts of home and crossing the ocean more 
than forty times in this anxious interval. Such per- 
severance is rare indeed, and deserves the highest meed 
of praise. 

In 1854 Mr. Field conceived the idea of spanning 
the ocean with the electric wire. Such an undertaking 
was too vast for the shoulders of a single individual, 



* For tlie accompanying facts, we are indebted to the excellent History of the 
Atlantic Telegraph, by Mr. Field's brother, Henry M. Field, D.D., the able editor 
of the New York Evangelist. Mr. Field's whole family is marked by unusual 
talent. His fatlier was a distinguished derygman of Stockbridge, Mass. Besides 
his brothers, Da\-id Dudley and Henry M., whom we have already mentioned, 
another brother, Stephen J., of California, is the youngest judge of the U. S. 
Supreme Court, and still another, Matthew, a skilful engineer, aided materially in 
the success of the cable. 



CITY OF NEW YORK 



859 







Cooper Institute. 



and he looked about hhn for coadjutors in the work. 
The first interested was his next door neighbor, the 
philanthropist, Peter Cooper, a native of New York. 
Moses Taylor, a wealthy New York capitalist, was next 
enlisted, and through him, Marshall 0. Roberts ; both 
of these gentlemen were natives of New York, and 
ranked among its most prominent citizens. Chandler 
White, another New York merchant, filled up the 
measure ; and at six o'clock on the morning of the 8th 
of May, 1854, these five New York gentlemen met at 
the house of Mr. Field's brother, David Dudley Field, 
in Gramercy Park, and in half an hour organized a 
company and subscribed a million and a half of dollars 



860 HISTORY OF THE 

with which to begin one of the most herculean tasks 
ever undertaken within the memory of man. 

The first thing to be done was to estabUsh telegraphic 
communication from the mainland across the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence to Cape Ray, and thence to Cape St. 
John's, in Newfoundland, the most easterly point of the 
American continent. From this point the cable was 
to be laid along the bed of the ocean to the coast of 
Ireland. This part of the woi'k had been begun a few 
years before by a company organized by Frederick N. 
Gisborne, but which, after constructing a few miles, 
became bankrupt, and was obliged to abandon the 
undertaking. After two years of indefatigable labor 
the first step was accomplished, and a submarine cable 
laid across the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and thence four 
hundred miles overland to St. John's. Thus far it had 
been purely an American, and, we may say, a New 
York enterpi-ise, having been accomplished almost 
solely by Mr. Field and his associates, the original 
projectors of the scheme, with some slight co-operation 
from Professor Morse, Wilson G. Hunt, Robert W. 
Lowber and John W. Brett. Save the few shai-es held 
by the latter gentleman, the father of submarine tele- 
graphy in Europe, not a dollar had been raised for the 
enterprise on the other side of the Atlantic. As the 
Atlantic Telegraph was an international undertaking, 
however, it was now fitting that Europe should bear 
her part in the burden. Mr. Field appealed to the 
British government for assistance, which was granted, 
and ships were placed at the service of the company. 
The American government rendered like assistance ; 
and after much preliminary exploration and study, in 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 861 

the summer of 1857 the first attempt was made, with the 
Niagara and the Susquehanna, the two finest ships in 
the American navy, and the Agamemnon and the 
Leopard on the part of the British government, to hxy 
the great Atlantic Cable, which snapped when three 
hundred and thirty-five miles had been successfully laid, 
and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Nothing daunted, 
the persevering projector of the enterprise renewed the 
attempt the following year, and again the cable parted. 
This time public confidence, which had borne up under 
the first disappointment, gave way ; men sneered at the 
folly of casting money into the sea in pursuit of such an 
Utopian aim, and the directors of the new company that 
had been formed in England became disheartened and 
were disposed to abandon the undertaking. A last 
trial was however resolved on ; and on the 17th of 
July, 1858, the cable expedition sailed for the last 
time, and landed the wire on the shore of Trinity Bay, 
August 5, 1858. 

The excitement which followed the success of this 
gigantic scheme was intense everywhere, especially in 
New York, whose commercial interests were so deeply 
involved in the enterprise. On the 16th of August the 
Queen of England transmitted a message of congratula- 
tion to the President of the United States, who returned 
an answer. The next morning a hundred guns were 
fired in the Park at daybreak, in honor of the event, 
and the salute was repeated at noon. Flags were 
raised on all the public buildings, the bells were rung, 
and at night the city was brilliantly illuminated. The 
City Hall, indeed, was well nigh offered up as a holocaust 
on this occasion, for the cupola took fire from the lights 



862 HISTORY OF THE 

around it, and the building was saved with great diffi- 
culty. The 1st of September was set apart for a public 
ovation, by the municipal authorities, to^Ir. Field and 
the officers of the expedition. The celebration sur- 
passed everything of the kind ever witnessed in the 
city. A morning thanksgiving service was held at 
Trinity Church, at which two hundred clergy officiated. 
A.t noon Mr. Field and the officers of the ships landed 
at Castle Garden and were received with a national 
salute. A procession was formed, extending from the 
Battery to the Crystal Palace, where the mayor 
presented to Mr. Field the freedom of the city in a gold 
box, with the thanks of the community. At night the 
firemen paraded the streets in a torch-light procession 
to do honor to the hero who had achieved such a 
miracle, and whose fame was in every one's mouth. 
On that very day the voice of the cable was suddenly 
hushed. The revulsion that followed was excessive. 
The cable at once fell into contempt, and was publicly 
decried as a hoax or a stock speculation, many denying 
that any message had ever passed over it, though four 
hundred messages had been transmitted in the interval, 
and the papers of the day proved that events were pub- 
lished in the Enghsh journals forty-eight hours after 
their occurrence in America ; a thing impossible without 
the intervention of the telegraph. To give a single 
example of this fact, unknown to many, Mr. Eddy, a 
well-known telegraph operator, died suddenly at Bur- 
lington, Vt., on Monday, August 23d, and his death 
was telegraphed to England and published in the 
London Times, August 25th. Mr. Field fell, in the 
public estimation, from the rank of a successful hero 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 863 

to that of a visionary scliemer and perhaps adven- 
turer ; his task was rendered tenfold more difficult by 
its momentary success, and for almost ten years he was 
doomed to struggle against the tide, stimulating the 
unwilling faith of his coadjutors, and raising the 
immense sums of money that were necessary to carry 
out his gigantic undertaking in the midst of an un- 
heard-of season of financial depression and civil war. It 
is safe to say that not one man in a million would have 
persevered ; but his iron will carried him successfully to 
the end, as did that of Fulton before him. In the inter- 
val of waiting, important improvements were effected 
in the manufacture of telegraphic machinery, and a 
mammoth ship, the Great Eastern, was built, whose 
vast capacity and smooth motion gave increased facilities 
for the successful laying of the cable. The company 
was revived, and on the 23d of July, 1865, the Great 
Eastern set sail, trailing in her wake the precious wire. 
So many precautions had been taken that failure seem- 
ed almost impossible. In spite of all this care a fault 
occurred when twelve hundred miles at sea, and 
in attempting to recover it, the cable snapped and went 
down. 

It was necessary to begin the work anew. The 
ship returned to England ; three millions of dollars 
were raised to prosecute the undertaking, a new cable 
was made, and on the 13th of July, 1866, the Great 
Eastern again sailed with the cable, and this time suc- 
ceeded in carrying it safely across the Atlantic, after 
twelve years of almost superhuman effort. Nor was 
this all ; the huge vessel retraced its course, and, with 
the aid of its powerful grappling machinery, succeeded 



864 HISTORY OF THE 

in fishing up from the bottom of the sea, two miles deep, 
the cable that had been lost the year before ; and, 
having spliced it, established a second line of com- 
munication between the Old and New Worlds. 

The final success of this enterprise was hailed with 
delight, and for the second time Mr. Field was re- 
garded as the hero of the age. The Chamber of Com- 
merce of New York gave a public banquet in honor of 
the Ocean Telegraph and its projectors, at the Metro- 
politan Hotel on the 15th of November, 1866, in which 
the most distinguished personages of the country par- 
ticipated, either in person or by letter, and the Thirty- 
ninth Congress presented a gold medal to Mr. Field, 
with the thanks of the nation. 

An achievement so vast, accomplished in the face of 
such difficulties, and conferring such benefits on man- 
kind, justifies the tribute of one of the greatest of Eng- 
lishmen, John Bright, when, in a speech at a monster 
meeting at Leeds, addressing a hundred thousand of his 
countrymen, he said: "A friend of mine, Cyrus W. 
"Field of New York, is the Columbus of our time ; for, 
"after not less than forty passages across the Atlantic 
"in pursuit of the great aim of his life, he has at lengthy 
"by his cable, moored the New World close alongside 
" of the Old." 

A great step in advance was taken in New York 
during the same year, by the organization of a Metro- 
politan Board of Health, consisting of four commis- 
sioners, appointed by the governor by and with the 
consent of the Senate, the health officer and the Police 
Board, which was invested with extensive powers, and 
charged with the task of abating nuisances and watching 



CITS OF NEW YORK 



865 




^^ The spire which fomij pat t>f the Je:^ »fQ of tb chur I Has no yet be u ci 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 867 

over the public health of New York and Brooklyn. 
The act to create a Metropolitan Sanitary District and 
Board of Health therein, for the preservation of life 
and health and to prevent the spread of disease, passed 
the Legislature on the 26th of February, 1866 ; and 
James Crane, M.D., Willard Parker, M.D., Jackson S. 
Schultz and John 0. Stone, M.D., were appointed to 
constitute the said Board. This measure had been 
called forth by the dread of an impending visitation of 
the cholera, which had ravaged New York at different 
times, especially in 1832 and 1849, and which was 
raguig violently in Europe. In the preceding Novem- 
ber the steamship Atlanta, an emigrant vessel, had 
arrived at New York from Europe, having on board 
several passengers sick of Asiatic cholera. No hospital 
on land had been provided since the destruction of the 
Quarantine Buildings on Staten Island, and the sick 
were obhged to take refuge on a floating hulk in the 
bay, which had been used during the summer for the 
reception of yellow fever patients. In a few weeks 
the disease broke out at Ward's Island, where several 
deaths occurred. The severity of the weather checked 
its further progress ; but the belief was general that it 
would break out with fresh violence in the spring. The 
Board of Health vigorously set to work to purify the city, 
the hygienic condition of which was deplorable. Under 
the energetic management of the Health Commissioners. 
the streets were swept, the tenement quarters disin- 
fected, the fat and bone boihng establishments and 
slaughter-houses removed beyond the limits of the city, 
the markets cleaned, the practice of driving cattle 
through the streets during the day-time discontinued, 
and many sanitary measures effected. 



868 HISTORY OF THE 

In .he spring the steamship England arrived at Hal- 
ifax, with one hundred and sixty cases of cholera, 
exclusive of forty that had died on the voyage from 
Liverpool. Information was at the same time received 
that two vessels had stopped at Bermuda on their way 
to New York, and were quarantined there on suspicion 
of having cholera on board. The only quarantine hos- 
pital possessed by New York was a hulk that would 
accommodate about three hundred patients. In view 
of the danger, the Board of Health petitioned the gov- 
ernor for a grant of extraordinary powers to provide 
for the accommodation of the sick and the purification 
of the city. These powers were granted till the 15th 
of October. The Board made earnest efforts to estab- 
lish a quarantine, but were thwarted on every hand ; 
the inhabitants of Staten Island, Coney Island, Sandy 
Hook, and all other eligible spots in the vicinity of New 
York, strenuously opposed the establishment of a chol- 
era hospital in their neighborhood ; and though steps 
were taken to occupy Seguin's Point by force, nothing 
permanent was efiected, and thus the matter remained. 
Meanwhile, the expected visitant arrived. On the 18th 
of April the steamer Virginia reached New York from 
Liverpool, with a number of cholera cases of the most 
malignant type on board. The sick were transferred 
to a hospital ship, and those in health to a steamer fitted 
up for their accommodatiou Twelve days after, on the 
1st of May, the first case of cholera broke out in New 
York, in an old, ill-drained tenement-house on the 
eoruar of Third Avenue and Ninety-third street. The 
victim was a woman, who died in a few hours. The 
next day another case occurred at 115 Mulberry street, 



CITY or NEW YORK. 8G9 

five miles distant. From this time the disease slowly 
extended, until it reached its height in August. It was 
confined, however, almost wholly to the badly drained 
and insalubrious districts of the city, and to the public 
institutions on the islands round about. In Brooklyn 
it raged with, great violence. The Board of Health 
kept vigilant watch over the pestilence, and succeeded 
in checking its ravages so far that the whole number 
of fatal cases in the city, including the shipping at the 
wharves and the vast floating population, was but four 
hundred and sixty ; while the whole number of deaths 
from cholera, comprising the hospitals and the penal 
institutions on the islands, was twelve hundred and 
twelve. In the Western cities, whither it extended with 
fearful rapidity, the victims were numbered by thou- 
sands. During the continuance of the pestilence the 
barracks on the Battery, which had been used during 
and since the war as a depot for troops passing through 
the city, were converted into a hospital, together with 
the United States Transit Hospital immediately adja- 
cent. The barracks in front of the Five Points House 
of Industry were also used as a depot for disinfectants. 
A hospital was established in Second Avenue, and 
a corps of medical men and nurses was organized to 
serve during the plague, which finally disappeared in 
October. 

A marked event in the di'amatic world, during this 
year, was the visit of the celeljrated Italian tragedienne, 
Adelaide Ristori, the former rival of Rachel, who arrived 
at New York in the autumn of 1866, and soon after made 
her debut with great success. After a brilliant tour 
throughout the whole country, Madame Ristori, or rather 



870 HISTORY OF THE 

the Marchese del Grille, revisited the city in the following 
spring, and took her final departure thence for Europe 
on the 18th of May, 18G7. 

The winter of 1866-1867 was marked by great 
severity. The East River was entirely frozen over, an 
event of rare occurrence, and in the space of a few 
hours hundreds of persons crossed from Brooklyn to 
New York on the ice. The interruption to ferry navi- 
gation was so great that the public was stimulated to 
undertake the long talked-of project of bridging the 
East River, and the Legislature granted permission to 
two companies to construct elevated bridges, one from 
the vicinity of Chatham Square, in New York, to Fulton 
street, in Brooklyn, and the other from the neighbor- 
hood of Yorkville to the opposite point. About the 
same time a novel undertaking was commeiiced in the 
form of an elevated bridge for pedestrians, known as 
the Loew Bridge, across the corner of Broadway and 
Fulton street, a passage which had become extremely 
perilous from the crowd of vehicles constantly accumu- 
lated at that point. During the same session, an act 
was passed by Congi-ess authorizing the purchase, by 
the government, of the lower end of the City Hall Park, 
on which to erect a new Post-office. 

Various land-marks passed away in the spring of 
1867. St. John's Park, which, compai-atively a few 
years since, was the centre of wealth and fashion, was 
sold to the Hudson River Railroad Company, and trans- 
formed into a depot. This park had formed a portion 
of the " Queen's Farm," granted to Trinity Church in 
1705 by Lord Cornbury, and the title of which is still 
contested by the heirs of Aneke Jans, the widow of 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



S7J 



[61 1- Ib 




B"e\ 






Ifc 







Roelof Jans, and afterwards the wife of Domine Bo- 
gardus, who held the original patent. 

On the 13th of February, 1867, the old Society 
Library, on the corner of Broadway and Leonard 
street, was destroyed by fire. This edifice had been 
built in 1839 by the New York Society Library Asso- 
ciation, which occupied it until 1853. It was then 
sold to the publishers, D. Appleton & Co., who re- 
modelea it, and used the ground-floor for their book- 
store ; the upper stories being occupied by numer- 
ous societies, editors and artists. In 1860 the pub- 
lishing house of the Messrs. Appleton & Co. was re- 
moved to Broadway near Grand street, and the building 
was leased to the mercantile firm of S. B. Chittenden 
& Co., who were its occupants at the time of its destruc- 
tion, and whose loss thereby amounted to nearly a 
million of dollars. The Grecian facade of the build- 
ing remained for some time standing, almost unscathed 



872 HISTORY OF THE 

by the fire ; the beautiful ruin is worthy of remem- 
brance. 

In March Tammany Hall, on the corner of Frank- 
fort and Chatham streets, was sold to make way for a 
newspaper establishment, the Tammany Society having 
purchased the site of the Medical College in Fourteenth 
street, which had fallen a prey to the conflagration 
which destroyed the Academy of Music on the 26th of 
May, 1865, in order to erect a new hall thereon. Tam- 
many Hall stood on the Leisler estate, near, or on the 
spot, where the unfortunate Leisler was buried. It was 
erected in 1811, and had long been conspicuous in the 
political annals of the city. 

Another noticeable conflagration was that of the 23d 
of March, 1867, which swept away Winter Garden from 
the face of the earth, and seriously injured the adjoin- 
ing Southern Hotel. This was a fatal spot, Tripler 
Hall, the Lafarge Hotel, and the Metropolitan Theatre, 
having been burned to the ground thereon in succession. 
The fire, however, only gave a fresh impetus to private 
enterprise, and scarcely was the building in ashes, when 
its successor was projected. 

The close of 1867 and beginning of 1868 was a mem- 
orable epoch in the fortunes of New York. The era 
was one of great and general prosperity. Business, 
which had been gradually reviving since the end of the 
war, received a sudden impetus about this time ; stock 
and petroleum speculations flourished, and trade of all 
kinds was thriving. This was especially ti'ue of real 
estate on New York Island, owing in part to the natural 
growth of the metropolis, and in part to the gigantic 
schemes for municipal improvements projected by the 



CITY OF NEW y O K K. 



873 



famous Ring, wlio already more or less controlled the 
city government, and tlie rise and fall of wliicli was 
doomed to form snch a graphic episode in the history of 
the metropolis. John T. Hoffman had Just been re- 
elected Mayor, William M. Tweed was President of the 
Board of Supervisors, Eichard B. Connolly was Comp- 
troller, and Peter B. Sweeny was City Chamberlain and 
Treasurer, all names destined to a bad eminence. As 
the readiest means of dazzling the citizens with brilliant 
visions of the public welfare, and thus blinding them to 
their nefarious designs on the treasury, this band of wor- 
thies planned a series of magnificent schemes for improv- 
ing and beautifying the metropolis, many of which were 
broad • and sagacious, but under cover of which they 
succeeded in pei-petrating fi-auds almost unparalleled in 
municipal administration. As yet, most of these schemes 
existed only on paper, but they sufficed to inspu-e the 
people with a firm and not misplaced faith in the future 
grandeur and glory of New York. 

Those who marvel at the rapid growth of the city in 
a somewhat remote past, often fail to note the equally 
^vonderful changes that have taken place within their 
own memory. To illustrate this, let us rapidly sketch 
New York at so recent a date as 1868, contrasted with 
the New York of to-day, with its well-paved and well- 
sewered streets, lined with almost unbroken I'ows of 
brown stone and brick houses, with only here and there 
a vacant lot, already marked ]>}' some entei-prising builder, 
stretching from the Battery to Harlem, and even beyond 
it, and threaded by long lines of elevated railroads that 



874 HISTORY OF THE 

almost auniliilate space, and bring the residents of the 
outlying wards in close connection with Wall street and 
the Stock Exchange. At the epoch of which we speak, 
the whole upper part of the city, above Forty-second 
street, was a desolate ex^jause of piles of rocks and 
sunken lots, occupied chiefly with shanties, vaiied by an 
occasional row of lonely-looking brown -stone houses. 
The streets were mostly laid out, but few of them were 
paved or flagged, many not even graded. Madison 
Avenue, above Forty-second street, was a pile of debris, 
and the daily papers were clamoring for the speedy 
grading and paving of this important highway. Lex- 
ington Avenue was opened only to Sixty-fifth street. 
The steam cars of the Harlem and New Haven Rail- 
roads ran down Fourth Avenue, on the surface, to Forty- 
second street, whence the heavy cars were dragged by 
horses through the Park Avenue tunnel to the depot at 
Twenty-seventh street. At Thirty-second street and 
Foiu-th Avenue was the upper tenninus of the Fourth 
Avenue horse-car line, although a branch ran to the 
Thirty- fourth street ferry. The Hudson River Railroad 
branched off at Spuytenduyvel Creek on the west side 
of the to^Ta, to the passenger dej^ot at Thirtieth street 
and Tenth Avenue ; the freight depot being at St. John's 
Park. The Grand Central Depot was as yet undreamed 
of ; as was also the magnificent Fourth Avenue improve- 
ment, and the extension of city car lines that has since 
taken place. At this time the lumbering omnibuses were 
in their prime. Six stage lines were in existence : the 
Broadway and Fifth Avenue; the Broadway, Twenty- 



CITYOFNEWYOKK. 875 

tliird street and Nintli Avenue; the Broadway and 
Fom-tli xVvenue ; tlie Broadway and Eightli street ; the 
Second street and Broadway ; and the Madison Avenue. 
None of these found it woi-th while to go above Forty- 
seventh street. 

The venerable New York Hospital still stood on 
Broadway at the head of Pearl street, in the midst of a 
beautiful plot of five acres, carpeted with a greensward 
rivaling the famous turf of the English parks, and 
shaded by a double avenue of superb elms, the finest on 
the island. The dark, dingy, and inconvenient Middle 
Dutch Church in Nassau street served as the post-office 
of the gi-eat city of New York. Noon-day prayer-meet- 
ings were held in the North Dutch Church in "William 
street, and the stone-flagged aisles of St. George's Chapel 
in Beekman street echoed the tread of worshipers on the 
Sabbath. 

The building up of the city progressed with marvel- 
ous rapidity. Property doubled, trebled, even quad- 
mpled in value, not only in the improved and accessible 
part of the town, but in the remote districts, where 
everything was yet to be done, and with \vhich there was 
hardly any means of communication. The Ring and 
theii" tools, all of whom were reckless speculators in real 
estate, stimulated private enteqirise by the most lavish 
expenditure in public works. Believing in their power 
suddenly to transform the wild region west of the Cen- 
tral Park into the fashionable quarter of the metropolis, 
they laid out a magnificent boulevard, extending from 
the Grand Cii-cle at Eighth Avenue and Fifty-ninth 



876 HISTORY OF THE 

street, in a uortlierly direction, nearly parallel ■with tlie 
old Bloomingdale Road, midway between the Park and 
the river, joining Eleventh Avenue at One Hundred and 
Sixth street, and following its line northward to Tubby 
Hook, making a continuous drive of eighteen miles. 
The broad Avenue St. Nicholas was also laid out, extend- 
ing from the Central Park gate at Sixth Avenue and 
One Hundred and Tenth street, northward, along the 
east side of the grounds of the Convent of the Sacred 
Heart at Manhattamolle, and past the old Jumel man- 
sion. Seventh Avenue was likewise made a fine and 
spacious drive. Broadway, too, was widened from 
Union Square to the Central Park. 

With all these improvements, rapid transit from one 
end to the other of this long, narrow island became a vital 
necessity. Various means of aerial and underground 
steam raili-oads were devised. A three-tier or ai'cade road 
was warmly advocated, but was finally defeated in the 
Legislature. A chai'ter was granted the central under- 
ground road in April, 1868 ; a bill for a pneumatic rail- 
road was likewise passed by the Legislature in 1870. 
The only one of these projects destined to success was 
the Greenwich Street Elevated Railroad, the actual 
pioneer of all the others, which was begun July 2, 18G7, 
with a subscription of a hundred thousand dollars. A 
section was first built from the Batteiy to Cortlandt 
street, and the trial trip thereon, July 3, 1868, proved so 
satisfactory that the State Commission made a favora- 
ble report, and the Governor authorized the completion 
of the work from the Batteiy to Spuytenduyvel. 



CITY OF NEW YOEK. 877 

Real-estate speculation reached its Leiglit in 1868 
and 1869. In the reaction that followed it steadily 
decliued ; the downfall of the Ring crushed it outright, 
and an array of heavy taxes and assessments, followed 
by foreclosures, beggared a host of luckless investors. A 
panic ensued and property fell fai" below its value, until 
it reached the lowest point in the gloomy year 1878, 
when all business lay prostrate. Since that time it has 
gradually appreciated, and promises to veiify the saying 
that, in similar fluctuations, this kind of property has 
always advanced, at each new flood tide, beyond the 
high-water mark of the last receding wave. Indeed, if 
such has been the growth of the iipper part of the city 
during twelve years, with only the surface roads, what 
may be expected during the next decade, with the ad- 
vantage of rapid transit ? 

Means were also devised for bridging and tunneling 
the rivers on each side of the island, and the Legis- 
lature of 1860-1867 passed three bills, authorizing 
bridges to be constructed across the East River at three 
different points. To facilitate the crossing of Broadway, 
an elevated causeway, called the Loew Bridge, from 
Aldemian Charles E. Loew, was constracted across that 
thoroughfare at its intersection with Fulton street. 
This costly but unsightly structure was opened May 16, 
1867 ; it was, however, found impracticable, and was 
abandoned the following year. 

Aliout this time English sparrows were domesticated 
in New York. The swarms of worms that infested the 
trees in the parks and streets had attained the propor- 



878 HISTORY OF the 

tions of a positive nuisance. It liad become impossible 
to walk abroad duiing tlie summer months without 
finding myriads of tMs repulsive veiinin dangling into 
one's face or festooned about one's gai-ments. In 1866, 
the happy thought was conceived of letting loose a few 
sj)arrows in the parks. The hardy and voracious little 
bii'ds multiplied so fast, and exteiminated the worms so 
effectually, that tlie city was soon rid of the pest. The 
gi-ateful citizens hastened to build houses and provide 
druiking fountains for their useful little friends, never 
dreaming that a time might arise when the spaiTOws 
themselves would be assailed by an ungrateful generation. 

The autumn of 1867 was marked by the advent of a 
number of notable pereons, prominent among whom were 
Ristori, Fanny Kemljle, Mazzoleni, and Jauauschek. 
Charles Dickens paid his second visit to America at 
this epoch. He andved at Boston, November 20, and 
gave his first reading in New York, December 9. 

Among the notable buildings erected in 1867 was 
Pike's, afterwards the Grand Opera House, on the 
corner of Eighth Avenue and Twenty -third street, which 
was opened Jan. 9, 1868, by ]\Iadame La Grange and 
Signer Brignoli. The beautiful Renaissance edifice. 
Booth's Theatre, was built about the same time by the 
gifted tragedian, Edwin Booth, and opened early in 
1869. On October 31, 1868, the corner-stone of the 
Young Men's Chnstian Association Building was laid 
on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty-third street, 
opposite the Academy of Design. The structure was 
completed the following autumn. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 879 

111 December, 1868, A. Oakey Hall was elected 
Mayor. He was a clever, eccentric, ambitious mau, who 
co-operated with the Riug from love of power rather 
than greed. 

1869 was signalized by the removal of some land- 
maj-ks, notably of the New York Hos]^)ital, and the con- 
struction of a host of buildings, public and private, 
chief among which were the massive granite Post Office, 
at the lower end of the park, and the Grand Central 
Depot at Forty-second street, both of which were 
begun during this year. The latter was built for Com- 
modore Vanderbilt, under the supervision of his son, 
William H. Vanderbilt, for the common use of the Har- 
lem, New Haven, and Hudson River Roads, and is the 
largest depot in the United States, being 696 feet long, 
and 240 feet wide. Ground was broken November 15, 
1869, and the depot was opened October 9, 1871. The 
old depot at Twenty-seventh street was fitted up as a 
place of amusement, and known first as Barnum's Hip- 
podrome, and subsequently as " Gilmore's," and Madison 
Square Garden. The new structure, which extends from 
Forty-second to Fcn-ty -fifth streets, while promoting pub- 
lic convenience in some ways, materially injured the city 
by blocking up so important a thoroughfare as Fourth 
Avenue, and cutting off communication between the east 
and west sides of the town for the space of three squares. 

The New York Post Office, the finest public edifice 
in the city, was designed by A. B. Mullett, the noted 
government architect, and was five years in building. 
On Saturday night, August 28, 1875, the Old Middle 



880 HISTORY OF THE 

Dutch Churcli in Kassau street, wliicli had served the 
city as a post office for more thau thirty years, was abau- 
doned, and sixty-five loads of mail matter were con- 
veyed to the new building under the direction of the 
Postmaster, Thomas L. James, and the Supervising Ar- 
chitect, William A. Potter. The next morning the reg- 
ular business of the office was resumed as usual, with- 
out any of the confusion that had been anticipated from 
the important transfer. 

On June 18, 1869, the youngest of the cpiartette of 
renowned New York Journalists, Henry J. Raymond 
of the Times, died suddenly of apoplexy in his fiftieth 
year. He was followed, June 1, 1872, by the veteran 
James Gordon Bennett, of the Herald, aged seventy- 
seven. The next on the death roll was Horace Greeley, 
the founder of the N'ew Yorh Tribune, who expii'ed 
November 29, 1872, at the age of sixty-two ; and the list 
was closed, June 12, 1878, by the death of the eldest, 
the poet William CuUen Biyant, of the Evening Post, 
in his eighty-fourth year. 

The gi'eat event of 1870 was the beginning of the 
Brooklyn Bridge. This enterprise was first commenced 
by a j^iivate stock corporation, which was incoiporated 
April 16, 1867, imder the name of the New York Bridge 
Company. The control was afterward assumed by the 
two cities. New York and Brooklyn, and the manage- 
ment was vested in a board of trustees. In May, 1867, 
plans for the l^ridge Avere submitted to the president 
and directors by Mr. John A. Roebliug, the appointed 
engineer; these were accepted, and surveys were made 



CITY OF X E W YORK. 881 

for the work in 1869. On January 2, 1870, the long- 
talked-of undertaking was actually begun by the sink- 
ing of the caisson on the Brooklyn side. In conse- 
quence of the engineer's death, the work was transferred 
in August, 1870, to his son, Colonel W. A. Roebling, 
who continued afterward in charge of the operations. 

This magnificent engineering work, which extends 
from Printing-House Square to Sands street, Brooklyn, 
and which crosses the East River at its narrowest part, 
is the highest bridge ever built at such an elevation, 
being 119 feet above high water, and flanked by towers 
at the river side 277 feet in height. It is 1,600 feet 
wide, and a mile and one-seventh long, the distance from 
the Chatham street end to the New York tower being 
1,500 feet, while the Brooklyn approach is 900 feet. 
The center span is about 1,600 feet, and the side spans 
930 feet in length. Each of its foiir cables consists of 
over 5,000 steel wires, with an ultimate strength of 
11,500 tons. The first estimate of the cost of the 
bridge was $6,750,000. In June, 1878, about $9,400,000 
had been expended, and the estimate of the cost was 
increased to about $13,000,000. 

On the 8th of June, 1870, the corner-stone of the 
new Masonic Temple was laid on the corner of Sixth 
Avenue and Twenty-third street. In the same year the 
statue of Lincoln, by li. K. Browne, was set up at the 
lower side of Union Square. 

A notable event of the autumn of 1871 was the 
arrival of the Russian Grand Duke Alexis, on the 28th of 
November. He was received with gi-eat e'dat, brilliant 
50 



882 HISTORY OF THE 

balls laeing giveu at tlie New York Academy of Music 
and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and a grand review of 
the troops held in Tompkins Sqiiare in his honor. Two 
yeai-s previous, iu 1869, similar attentions had been paid 
to Prince Arthur, afterward the Duke of Connaught, on 
the occasion of his visit. 

In the summer of 1870, the peace of the city was 
disturbed by a riot which had far-reaching consequences. 
On the 12th of July a party of Orangemen, while com- 
memorating the battle of the Boyne by a picnic at Elm 
Pai'k in Eighth Avenue in the vicinity of Ninety-second 
street, was attacked by a mob of Boulevard laborers 
who had been incensed, it is said, by the inflammatory 
tunes played by the band on its way. Stones were 
thr6wn and shots exchanged, three persons were killed 
and several wounded, some fatally ; and the affray be- 
came so serious that Superintendent Jourdan dispatched 
a strong police force to the spot, that soon dispersed the 
rioters. 

Great excitement ensued among the partisans of the 
rival factions, which assumed menacing proportions as the 
next anniversary approached. The Ribboumen, joined 
with the dregs of the populace, such as had figured in 
the riots of 1863, made open threats of \aolence against 
the Orangemen, should they venture to parade, and the 
danger of bloodshed seemed so imminent that the city 
authorities weakly quailed before the peril, and, July 
11, Superintendent Kelso, with Mayor Hall's approval, 
issued an order forbidding the pi-ocession. This act 
aroused the mldest indicrnation. It was everywhere 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 883 

felt that a ^irlnciple of liberty was at stake, and even 
those who most deplored the folly of keeping alive a 
foreign feud on American soil felt that the ri2;ht of free 
assemblage must be protected at all hazards. Warned 
by the storm of public feeling, Governor Hoffman 
promj)tly revoked Kelso's order. Meanwhile most of the 
Orangemen had prepared to celebrate the day in New 
Jersey, and the members of Gideon Lodge alone, number- 
ing some hundi'ed and sixty men, availed themselves of 
the permission to parade. The little band set out on 
its march escoi'ted by niimerous policemen in front and 
rear, together with the Eighty-fourth, Twenty-second, 
Sixth, and Ninth Kegiments of New York militia. They 
passed in ominous silence through streets lined with 
crowds of men, women, and children. On reaching 
Eighth Avenue, between Twenty-fourth and Twenty- 
fifth streets, a shot fired from a tenement house gave the 
signal for a general onslaught. Volleys of paving stones 
rained on the procession, chimneys were torn down 
and flung at them, and shots were fired by the rioters 
without provoking a response until Private Page, of the 
Ninth Regiment, was shot from his horse. His conu'ades 
instantly shot down his assailant, and the troops opened 
fire upon the mob. The contest was short, sharp and 
decisive ; the undisciplined crowd soon retreated before 
the soldiery, and the procession went on its way to the 
nearest point where it could disband with dignity. Great 
consternation prevailed throughout the city. The shops 
were everywhere closed, and business was suspended. 
Rumors were rife that the riot was to be rene\ved, and 



884 HISTORY OF THE 

a general attack made on the aiinories and public build- 
ings. The police took possession of Hiberuia Hall, the 
headquarters of the lioters, and Governor Hoffman and 
General Shaler established themselves at the Central 
Police Headquai-ters and summoned troops from Brook- 
lyn. An unsuccessful attack was made by the mob on 
the Fenian armory in Avenue A. By degrees the ex- 
citement calmed, and tranquility was restored. In this 
bloody conflict two soldiers. Sergeant Samuel Wyatt, 
and Private Henry C. Page, of the Kinth Regiment, and 
one policeman, Hemy Ford, were killed, and twenty-six 
pohcemen and soldiers were wounded. Of the rioters 
and others thirty-seven — among whom were a woman, 
a girl, and a boy — were killed, and sixty-seven wounded. 
The obsequies of the soldiei-s were celebrated the next 
Sunday with an imposing parade. It is only just to 
note that this riot was factious and political rather than 
religious ; and that Archbishop McCloskey and the rest 
of the Catholic clergy had earnestly adjured their flocks, 
the Sunday before, not to interfere in any way with the 
Orange procession; they afterward formally disowned 
the rioters. 

This exciting occurrence was speedily followed by 
one of the most memorable events in the annals of this 
city — the exposure of the Tammany Ring fi-auds. 

For several years past, the great and wealthy metrop- 
olis had been absolutely controlled by the band of un- 
scrupulous men familiai-ly known as the Tammany Ring, 
and whicli was itself ruled by the notorious William 
M. Tweed. The career of this Captain Kidd of the 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 885 

nineteentli ceutury is a drama of crime Avliicli needs no 
fiction to enhance tlie interest of its gi'aphic reality. 
Beginning life as an humble chairmaker, in partnership 
with his brother Richaixl, he entered politics at an early 
age, and by adroit affiliation with the powerful body of 
firemen and the masses of ignorant voters that rule the 
elections in the lower wards, succeeded in working his 
way up, through various public offices, to the dignity 
of President of the Board of Supervisors, and Deputy 
Street Commissioner. The latter office, to which he 
was elected in 1863, and by which he stood virtually 
at the head of the public works, gave him almost un- 
limited control of the expenditures for public improve- 
ments, while the former enabled him to increase the 
city pay-roll at his pleasure, and to reward his sup- 
porters with sinecure positions. His election as Grand 
Sachem of the Tammany Society in 1863 endowed him 
with vast political power, through which he was thrice 
chosen State Senator, iu 1867, '69, and '71. A host of 
corrupt officials rallied round him, moved by thirst for 
place or gold. Foremost among these were Richard B. 
Connolly, Peter B. Sweeny, and A. Oakey Hall, who, 
together with himself, formed the famous Ring, that 
made every department of the city government, from 
the highest to the lowest, their tool, and even suborned 
the judges on the bench. A wholesale system of plun- 
der, comprising the streets, boulevards, parks, armories, 
and all public buildings and improvements, was inau- 
giu'ated, in which the spoils were divided pro rata. 
The new County Court House, in the City Hall Park, 



886 HISTORY OF THE 

proved the richest mine. This was authorized by the 
Legislature in 1858, and was not to cost more tlian 
$250,000; in 1871 more than $8,000,000 had been 
ostensibly expended on it, and it was still unfinished. 
All the contractors were required to pay a commission 
of from 65 to 85 per cent, to the Ring, of which Tweed 
usually received one-fourth, and the I'est was divided 
among his confederates. The mechanics' small share 
suffered still further abatement, since they were re- 
quired besides to contribute largely to the political 
fund, and to fit up and furnish city and country houses 
for the Ring and their friends gratuitously, besides 
supplying them with anything which they chanced 
to fancy. Those who dared remonstrate were threat- 
ened, not only with the loss of the city patronage, but 
with non-payment for the work ali'eady done, which 
woiild have reduced them to bankruptcy. They were 
encouraged to increase their bills to inordinate sums, a 
million and a half being granted on one occasion for an 
account estimated at $264,000. Of these bills, not ten 
per cent, of actual value was received by the city. A 
secret list of these fraudulent j^ayments was kept in the 
Auditor's Office, under the seemingly inoffensive title of 
" County Liabilities." 

To facilitate his nefarious schemes, April 5, 1870, 
Tweed secured the passage of a new city charter, by 
which the city goveiTiment was vnthdrawn from all 
control of State authority, and the executive power was 
vested in a mayor and eleven departments — the heads 
of which were to be appointed by the mayor. The 



CITY OF X E TV YORK. 887 

offices of Street Commissioner and Croton Department 
were vacated, and tlieii" powers were vested in a Com- 
missioner of Pul)lic Works, who was to hold office for 
four years. Mayor Hall immediately appointed Tweed 
to this important post, and placed Peter B. Sweeny at 
the head of the Park Commission. John J. Bradley- 
was made Chambei'lain, Eichard B. Connolly was Comp- 
troller. The power of auditing was taken fi'om the 
Board of Supervisors and confeiTed on a board of audit, 
composed of the mayor, comptroller, and commissioner 
of Public Works — Hall, Connolly, and Tweed. This 
Board of Audit held but a single session, of five min- 
utes' duration, wherein they directed all outstanding 
liabilities to be collected, and, as a means of evading 
joint responsibility, illegally delegated the auditing 
thereof to one of their tools, the County Auditor, James 
Watson, Avho thenceforth signed the fraudulent bills, 
and afterwards carried them to the different members 
of the Board for their signature, sometimes indeed dis- 
pensing Tvith this formality. Within three and a half 
mouths, $6,312,000 was paid from the city treasury, 
$5,710,130 of which was for fitting up and furnishing 
the neAv Court House. It was estimated that the carpets 
purchased by the city for this purpose would have car- 
peted Union Square three times over. 

For the next fifteen months the Ring ruled triumph- 
ant, and squandered the public funds with a lavish 
prodigality that rivaled that of Heliogabalus. The 
tax-payers murmured at the waste ; the public journals 
clamored, especially the Trihune, Times, and Harper'' s 



888 HISTORY OF THE 

WeeMy, reinforced by Nast's cartoons ; to wliicli Tweed 
jeeringly ansAvered, " What are you going to do about 
it ? " But " lie laughs best who laughs last." The day 
of reckoning was at hand. 

In January, 1870, a clerk named William S. Cope- 
land had been jilaced in the auditor's office through the 
influence of Sheriff James O'Brien. While looking 
over some records, he stumbled upon the secret list of 
" County Liabilities." Fancying it suspicious, he made 
an exact transcript of it, which he earned to his patron, 
who at once discerned its importance, and attempted to 
use it to enforce upon the Ring the payment of a claim 
that he held against the city. By Sweeny's ad^-ice, the 
payment was refused, and he left, threatening to pub- 
lish the list in the Times. In the afternoon, the con- 
federates reconsidered their action, and sent Auditor 
Watson to negotiate with O'Brien at Bertholf's Hotel, 
a sjjorting tavern in Harlem Lane. O'Brien w^as acci- 
dentally detained, and on his return home Watson was 
thrown from his carriage, in a collision with another 
vehicle, and so severely injured that he died a few days 
after, fi-om concussion of the brain. His death-bed was 
surrounded by the Ring and their agents, anxious to 
prevent a damaging confession, and to secure the trans- 
fer of the large amount of property belonging to them 
which Watson held in his name, and which devolved 
on his "widow, as he never regained his consciousness. 

O'Brien continued to press his claims, but they were 
disregarded. Weeks and months passed by ; it grad- 
ually became whispered about that compromising docu- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 889 

meuts were in existence, and at length, feeling tliat his 
time for vengeance had come, after vainly offering them 
to the Sim, O'Brien placed the fraudulent accounts in 
the hands of George Jones, the j)roprietor of the Times, 
telling him to use them as he pleased. 

The publication of these portentous figures, which 
was continued in the Times fi-om July 20 to July 29, 
plunged the city in a ferment of excitement. The con- 
federates vainly tried to brave the storm of indignation 
which wholly overthrew there power in the November 
elections. Mass meetings were held ; a committee of 
seventy was appointed to investigate the frauds ; An- 
drew H. Green was made comptroller in the place of 
Connolly, who was forced to resign ; and Charles 
O'Conor, Richard O'Gorman, and other prominent citi- 
zens took measures to bring the criminals to Justice- 
Connolly, Sweeny, and many of their associates fled to 
Europe. Tweed remained and was arrested and lodged 
in Ludlow Street Jail. On Februaiy 10, 1872, he was 
indicted for forgery and grand larceny. The Jury dis- 
agreed. November 5, 1873, he was brought to trial 
for the second time, and found guilty of all the fifty-one 
counts in the indictment. He Avas sentenced, November 
22, to twelve years imprisonment in the penitentiary, 
and to pay a fine of $12,300.18 for each of twelve 
counts of the indictment, and of $250 for each of the 
other thirty-nine counts. For two years and a half 
there was AA^tnessed the anomalous spectacle of a New 
York senator imprisoned in the penitentiary of his own 
State, wearing the convict garb, and employed in forced 



890 HISTORY OF THE 

labor. He remained on Blackwell's Island until June 
13, 1875, wlieu liis friends obtained a decision from the 
Supreme Court, releasing liim on the ground that the 
court had exhausted its power by sentencing him on 
the first indictment, and that the cumulative sentence 
was void. He was taken to court June 22, and gave 
bail for $18,000 on the criminal indictments ; then, when 
liberty seemed just within his grasp, and he felt him- 
self once more a free man, he was again arrested on a 
civil suit for the recovery of over $6,000,000 charged in 
the County Liabilities, and held to bail in the enormous 
sum of three million dollars. His boasted twenty mill- 
ions had melted away in his numerous and costly suits, 
and he Avas forced to take up his quarters in Ludlow 
Street Jail, which, however, was luxurious in compari- 
son with the penitentiary. Aided by his friends, he 
concocted a plan of escape ; while taking an airing with 
Sheriff O'Brien, December 4, 1875, he persuaded his 
keepers to allow him to visit his wife at her house in 
Madison Avenue, and from there succeeded in effecting 
his flight. After a series of fatiguing and exhausting 
adventures, aggravated by his infii-m health and ex- 
cessive corpulence, he reached Vigo, Spain, where he 
remained in concealment until November of the follow- 
ing year, when he was apprehended and brought back 
to the jail from which he had escaped. Proceedings 
had been begun against him in the civil suit, January 
13, 1876, which resulted, March 8, in a verdict by a 
struck jury, for damages amounting to $6,537,117.38, 
principal and interest. Hopeless of securing fi'eedom 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 891 

by tbe restitution of liis stolen uiillious, branded with 
infamy, without liope for the future or comfort in the 
present, broken in health and prematurely aged, he 
lingered out the rest of his wretched existence in Lud- 
low Street Jail, where he died, April 12, 1878, at the 
age of fifty-five. 

In December, 1872, William F. Havemeyer was 
elected mayor. He did not live to complete his term, 
but died of apoplexy while sitting in his office, Novem- 
ber 30, 1874. 

One of the most important events of 1873 was the 
annexation to New York City of the contiguous part 
of Westchester County, comprising Morrisania, AVest 
Farms, and Kingsbridge. This accession nearly dou- 
bled the area of the cit}*, increasing it 13,000 acres. 
The island contained 22 square miles, or 14,000 acres, 
divided by survey into 141,486 lots. The new territory 
formed the 23d and 24th Wards. 

An amendment to the charter which was passed 
June 13, 1873, abolished the board of assistant alder- 
men, which had been substituted for the councilmeu 
in 1869, constituted a new common council of twenty- 
one aldermen, and provided tliat the State and charter 
elections, which had hitherto been held at different 
times, should take place on the same day in Novembei'. 
The first election under this regime was held in No- 
vember, 1874, when William H. AVickham was chosen 
mayor. 

The year 1873 was one of financial disaster. All 
business was paralyzed, a general panic prevailed, mer- 



892 HISTORY OF THE 

cantile firms, corporations, and banks stopped pa3Tiient, 
and the Stock Exchange, for the first time in its his- 
tory, suspended ojDeratious. It was long before public 
confidence was restored, and the stagnation continued 
without much improvement until the signal revival of 
trade in 1879 and 18S0. 

The summer of 1875 Avas signalized by the comple- 
tion of the gi'eat engineering work known as the Fourth 
Avenue improvement, which had been necessitated liy 
the fiequent loss of life from the surface trains of the 
three great arteries of travel, which had passed almost 
continually since the comjiletion of the Grand Central 
Depot. To obviate this, the four tracks of the roads 
were sunk into a huge tunnel, extending from Forty- 
second to One Hundredth streets, Avheuce they were 
carried by viaduct over the Harlem Flats to One Hun- 
di-ed and Sixteenth street, and thence through an open 
cut to Harlem Bridge. This gigantic undertaking cost 
$6,000,000, half of which was to be paid by the city 
and half by the road, and was executed under the direc- 
tion of Allan Campbell and Alfred AV. Craven. The 
road was opened from Forty-second street to Harlem, 
June 20, 1875. 

New York was visited, in 1876, by the genial and 
intelligent Empei-or of Brazil, Dom Pedro H. and his 
wife, the first reigning sovereigns that had set foot in 
the Republic, with the exception of the dusky King 
Kalakaua of the Sandwich Islands, in the winter of 
1874-'75. Unlike most royal personages, who expect 
entertainment, these princely visitors entertained them- 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 893 

selves, seeking out piil:>lie institutions, schools, manu- 
factories, and printing-offices, and impressing all with 
whom they came in contact with their good sense and 
excellent taste. 

In the summer of 1876, the French government paid 
New York a graceful compliment by presenting to it 
a statue of La Fayette, by the eminent sculptor Bar- 
tholdi, in token of gratitude for the substantial sympa- 
thy extended to France during the disastrous Franco- 
Prussian war. The statue was set up at the lower end 
of Union Square, between those of Washingtt>n and 
Lincoln, and unveiled, September 0, with appropriate 
ceremonies. 

The most noteworthj^ public work of the Centennial 
year was the Hell Gate explosion. In 1851, M. Maille- 
fert had attempted to open this important channel by 
surface blasting, which only demolished the rocks above 
water, and left them even more dangerous than before. 
In 1866, General John Newton, of the U. S. Engineer 
Coi-ps, surveyed the channel, and recommended a plan 
for removing the obstiiictions by submarine blasting, 
for which the first appi'opriation was made by Congress 
in 1868. The laborious work was prosecuted for eight 
years, under great difficulties ; at length, September 24, 
1876, the dangerous Hallett's Point Reef was blown to 
fragments by twenty-six tuns of powerful explosives, 
ignited by electricity from the pressure of a button by 
the hand of General Newton's little daughter. 

Great fears had been entertained lest this prodigious 
concussion would destroy half New York. Many peo- 



894 HISTORY OF THE 

pie left the city ; and tlie jDublic apprehended some 
dire disaster. The river was cleared of shipping foi' a 
considerable distance above and beloM^ the scene of 
operations ; the dreaded explosion took place ; for an 
instant a gigantic water-spout shot up in the air, filled 
with immense masses of rock, the next moment the com- 
motion had subsided, the waters flowed deep and clear 
over the spot once occupied by the formidable reef, and 
a safe passage was obtained. 

The result was hailed with delight, and General New- 
ton was ui'ged to prosecute the removal of other ob- 
structions to navigation in Hell Gate channel. 

At the November election of 1876, Smith Ely was 
chosen mayor. 

In the autumn of 1877, the corner-stone was laid of the 
new Seventh Regiment Armoiy, on the block bounded 
by Park and Lexington Avenues, and Sixty-sixth and 
Sixty-seventh streets ; the old armory at Tomj^kins 
Market having been found too small and inconvenient 
for regimental use. The favorite Seventh Eegimeut, 
the pride of the New York militia, had existed sub- 
stantially as an organization since 1824, being an out- 
growth of the 11th Regiment of State Artillery, which 
consisted of two battalions, one of artillery and one of 
infantiy. On May 6, 1820, the infantry battalion was 
organized as a separate regiment, under the title of 
the 27th Regiment of Artillery ; but was long known 
as the National Guards, a title which afterwards be- 
came common to all the militia. The name of the 
Seventh Regiment was bestowed on it, July 27, 1847, 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



895 



by Governor Youug. Tlie new armoiy rapidly pro- 
gi-essed, witli the aid of the lilieral snbseriptions that 
poured in from all sides, and was externally finished in 
the autumn of 187U, when a brilliant and highly suc- 
cessful fail- was held \vithin its walls to raise funds to 
fit up the interior. It was occupied on April 1, 1880. 

Another notable public institution opened in 1877 
was the New York Hospital, in the old Thorne man- 
sion, in Sixteenth street, between Fifth and Sixth 
Avenues. The Lenox Library, in Fifth Avenue, be- 
tween Seventieth and Seventy-first streets, was opened 
the following year. 

The desecration of A. T. Stewart's grave in St. 
Mark's churchyard. May 6, 1878, caused nuich excite- 
ment in New York. Mr. SteAvart had died April 10, 
1876, and his remains had been temporarily interred 
there, until the completion of the mausoleum in the 
Stewart Memorial Cathedral, at Garden City. The 
thieves escaped with the body, but were disappointed 
in gaining their expected reward. 

In the autumn of 1878, Edward Cooper was elected 
mayor.* 

* Tlie following complete list of the mayors of New York city, from the 
first English Charter granted by Governor Nicholls, June 12, 1665, to 1880, 
will be found convenient for reference : 

Thomas WiUett 1665, 166T. 

Thomas Delavall 1666, 1671. 1678. 

Cornelius Steenwyck 1668, '69, '70, '83, '83. 

Matthias Kicolls or Nicholas 1672. 

(1673. Deputy mayor, 

John Lawrence "!.„~i ^ir i pm 

( 1674. Mayor, 1691. 

Matthias NicoUs, November 10 1674. 



896 HISTORY OF THE 

The year 1878 ■\vituessetl tlie successful issue of the 
most important work undertaken in New York since 
the introduction of the Crotou water ; namely, the Ele- 
vated Raili'oads. We have abeady noticed the various 

William Dervall 1675. 

Nicholas De Meyer 1676. 

Stephanus Van Cortlaudt 1677, 1686-89. 

Fran(;ois Rombout 1679. 

William Dvre 1680, 1681. 

Gabriel Minvielle 1684. 

Nicholas Bayard 1685. 

Pieter Delanoy (Leislerian) 1689. 

Abraham De Peyster 1691-1694. 

Charles Lodowick 1694. 

William Merritt 1695-1698. 

Johannes De Peyster 1698. 

David Provoost 1699. 

Isaac De Riemer 1700. 

Thomas Noell 1701. 

Philip French 1702. 

William Peartree 1703-1706. 

Ebenezer Wilson 1707-1710. 

Jacobus Van Cortlandt 1710, '19. 

Caleb Heathcote 1711-1714. 

John Johnston 1714-1718. 

Robert Walters 1720-1724. 

Johannes Jansen 1725. 

Robert Lurting 1736-1734. 

Paul Richard 1735-1739. 

John Cruger 1739-174.3. 

Stephen Bayard 1744-1746. 

Edward Holland 1747-1756. 

John Cruger, jr 1757-1765. 

Whitehead Hicks 1766-1776. 

David Mathews (Tory) 1776-1783. 

James Duane 1783-1788. 

Richard Varick 1789-1800. 

Edward Livingston 1801 , 1802. 

De Witt CUnton 1803-1806, 1809-1814 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 897 

projects that had been set on foot for rapid transit, both 
aerial and underground, as well as the opening of the 
Greenwich Street and Ninth Avenue Elevated Road. 
On June 18, 1875, the Husted Act, providing for the 
appointment of a raj^id transit commission, was passed 
by the Legislature, and on July 1, Mayor Wickham 
accordingly commissioned Joseph Seligman, Lewis B. 
Brown, C. H. Delamater, Jordan L. Mott, and Charles 

Marinus Willett 1807. 

Jacob Radcliff 1808, 1815-1818. 

Jolin Ferguson March, 1815 — June, 1815. 

Cadwallader D. Colden 1818-1831. 

Stephen Allen 1821, 1832. 

William Paulding 1833, 1824, 1826, 1837. 

Philip Hone 1835 

Walter Bowne 1838-1831. 

Gideon Lee 183.3. 

Cornelius W. Lawrence 18-34-1837. 

Aaron Clark 1837, 1838. 

Isaac L. Varian 1839, 1840. 

Robert H. Morris 1841-1844. 

James Harper 1844. 

William F. Havemeyer 1845, 1848, 1873, 1874 

Andrew H. Mickle 1846. 

William V. Brady 1847. 

Caleb S. Woodhull 1849, 1850. 

Ambrose C. Kingsland 1851, 1853. 

Jacob A. Westervelt 1853, 1854. 

Fernando Wood 185.5-1857, 18G0, 1861. 

Daniel F. Tiemann 1858, 1859. 

George Opdyke 18G3, 1863. 

C. Godfrey Gunther 1864, 18C5. 

John T. HoSman 1806-1809. 

A. Oakey Hall 1869-1873. 

William H. Wickham 1875, 1876. 

Smith Ely 1877, 1878. 

Edward Cooper 1879, 1880. 



898 HISTORY OF the 

J. Cauda, to designate routes for elevated roads on both 
sides of tlie city. The commissioners selected Sixth, 
Third, and Second Avenues, with the streets continuing 
them to the lower termini, at the Batteiy and City Hall. 
Two companies imdertook the A\ork, the Gilbert, and 
the Xew York, already organized under the act of 1850, 
the hrst Avith Dr. Rufus H. Gilbert, the inventor of the 
road bearing his name, as president ; the second under 
the presidency of Cyrus W. Field, who purchased a 
controlling interest in the Greenwich Street and Ninth 
Avenue Eoad in 1877, and infused new energy into that 
hitherto languid enteq^rise. The Gilbert Company ob- 
tained the i-ight to construct on the Sixth and Second 
Avenue routes ; while the New York Company secured 
the lucrative Thii'd x\venue route, in addition to that 
already held by them. 

The virulent opposition to rapid transit that had been 
manifested from its inception, in 1866, by the horse-car 
companies and interested property-owners, increased 
tenfold ; suits were brought and injunctions laid at 
every step of the undertaking, the unconstitutionality 
of the charters was alleged, and the cases Avere carried 
from tribunal to tiibunal, until, in September, 1877, the 
Court of Appeals unanimously declared the charters 
constitutional, and the companies at liberty to build 
their roads. The work was immediately prosecuted 
with the iitmost vigor ; armies of men were employed 
on the different roads, and June 5, 1878, the Sixth 
Avenue Elevated Road — the name of which was 
changed from the Gilbert to the Metropolitan— was 



CITY or N E W Y O K K . 899 

opened from Rector to Fifty-eiglitli streets. Ou the 
26tli of August, tlie first public train Avas run on the 
Third Avenue route, from the Battery thi-ough Pearl 
street to Forty-second street ; on September 16th, the 
road was opened to Sixty-seventh street, and was soon 
after extended tQ Harlem. The Sixth Avenue Road 
was extended to One Hundred and Twenty-ninth street 
the following year. The Second Avenue Road Avas 
opened to Sixty-seventh street, March 1, 1880. In 1879, 
both companies came under one management, having 
leased their respective roads to a third corporation, by 
the name of the Manhattan Railway Company. 

The success of the elevated roads was as brilliant as 
it was startling, and rewarded the enteiprising project- 
ors with a golden harvest. Few had foreseen the mag- 
nitude of the undertaking, or the influence it would 
have on the fortunes of the city. By bringing the Cen- 
tral Park within twenty minutes' distance from Wall 
street, and Harlem and the Battery only three quarters 
of an hour apart, it had I'emoved the disadvantages of 
the long and narrow island, and rendered all parts of 
the town conveniently accessible to each other: In fact, 
it had van(|uished the one formidable oljstacle to the 
■ growth of the great metropolis, and opened the way to 
an incalculable progi'ess. 

In the AA-inter of 1879-80, the Metropolitan Museum 
of Art was removed from the old Cruger Mansion in 
Fourteenth street, near Sixth Avenue, to the handsome 
structure erected for it on the east side of the Central 
Park, between the Lower Reservoir and Fifth Avenue, 



900 HISTORY OF THE 

aud wliieli was formally opened to the public, with 
appropriate ceremonies, Marcli 30, 1880. This val- 
uable museum was organized by a committee of a 
hundred and sixteen gentlemen, appointed at a pub- 
lic meeting, November 23, 1869, and was incoi-po- 
rated by the Legislature April 13, 1870, for the jjurpose 
of promoting the study of the fine arts, and diffusing 
popular knowledge on kindred subjects. Its first ac- 
quisition Avas a considerable collection of pictures, 
chiefly the works of old Dutch and Flemish masters, 
which were first exhibited at 681 Fifth Avenue, together 
with a loan collection of pictures and bric-a-brac. In 
April, 1871, the Legislature appropriated $200,000 for 
the erection of a building for the museum in the Central 
Park or elsewhere. In 1872-'73, it was enriched by the 
unique Di Cesnola collection of Cypriote antiquities, 
which its public-spii'ited president, John Taylor John- 
ston, bought on his own account, through William T. 
Blodgett, while the British Museum was debating its 
purchase. In the spring of 1877, it also secured the rich 
treasures discovered by General di Cesnola at Curium. 

To chronicle all the changes, however, that have 
occurred and are occurring, would far transcend the 
limits of our work. Far different, indeed, is the New 
York Island of the present day, with its forests of cities, 
its marble, iron, and free-stone palaces, and its million 
of bustling inhabitants, from the grassy hills which met 
the eye of Hudson little more than two centuries and a 
half ago. Then the island belonged to Nature, now it 
has become the property of Art. The marshes ai-e 
drained, the forests levelled, and the fair, broad farms 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 901 

laid out into building lots and traversed with large u'on 
pipes, conveying fire and water side by side through the 
earth. Scarce a vestige remains of the primitive Man- 
hattan. Under the impetus given it by the Central 
Park, the city is fast rushing northward, and, in all 
probability, comparatively few years will pass before 
the whole island will be covered with a compact mass 
of buddings. 

Nor have the suburbs failed to keep pace with the 
city. Indeed, the whole country within a radius of 
thirty miles may be considered as a part of New York, 
a sleeping place for its citizens. Across the East River 
lies Brooklyn, the third city in the Union, somewhat 
overshadowed by the greatness of her mammoth neigh- 
bor, with the thriving villages of Green Point, Hunter's 
Point, Ravenswood and Astoria stretching to the north- 
ward along the Sound shore ; and on the west shore of 
of the Hudson are Jersey City, the Paulus Hook of 
the Dutch settlers, Hoboken, and the picturesque 
heights of Weehawken. The lines of the Hudson River, 
Harlem and New Haven Railroads, are studded with 
thrifty towns, populated by the New Yorkers, who have 
also monopolized Staten Island and spread far back on 
the Jersey shore. 

The islands in the East River are admirably adapted 
by their location to the penal institutions of which they 
are made the site. On Blackwell's Island, opposite 
Yorkville, are the Penitentiary, Lunatic Asylum, Alms 
Houses, Hospital and Workhouse. Above this are 
Ward's Island, where the Emigrant Hospital is situated, 
and Randall's Island, the site of the Pauper Nursery 
and the House of Refuge. In New York Bay, south- 



902 HISTORY OF THE 

west of the Battery, are Ellis and Bedloe's Islands, 
both strongly fortified for the protection of the harbor. 
A little to the south-east of the Battery is Governor's 
Island, the site of Fort Columbus and Castle WiUiam, 
and below this, in the heart of the Bay, is the beautiful 
Staten Island, the villa of the merchant princes of New 
York, commanding the Narrows by Forts Tompkins and 
Richmond, with numerous batteries. The opposite 
shore of the Narrows is protected by Fort Hamilton on 
Long Island and Fort Lafayette on Hendrick's Reef, 
about two hundred yards from the shore. On a mole, 
connected by a bridge with the Battery, is Castle Garden, 
the fortress of olden times, now used as the depot of the 
Commissioners of Emigration. The Sound entrance is 
defended by Fort Schuyler and other works. 

Numerous ferries connect New York Island with the 
neighboring shores, and it is probable that ere long the 
broad rivers on both sides will be spanned with bridges. 
At Harlem River it is connected with the main land by 
the Harlem Turnpike and Harlem Railroad Bridges, 
McComb's Bridge and the High Bridge of the Croton 
Aqueduct, while Spuytenduyvel Creek, the northern 
boundary of the island, is crossed by the well-known 
Kingsb ridge, first built of wood, by order of the Cor- 
poration, as early as 1691. 

At the Dry Dock, on the north-east shore of the 
island, and also on the opposite shore, are the exten- 
sive ship-yards of the city ; and at the United States 
Navy Yard, in the Wallabout, is the Naval Dry Dock, 
the largest in the world. 

The public buildings of the city are numerous, and 
are mostly in keeping with its wealth and importance. 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



903 




1 I 




w 



§?').: 






Sub-Treasury. 

In the Park is the New Court House, the City Hall and 
various minor buildings, devoted to municipal purposes ; 
close by, in Centre street, is the City Prison, or ' ' Tombs.'" 
a gloomy structure in the centre of the most squaUd 
portion of the city. 

In Wall, at the head of Broad street, on the site of 
the old City Hall and Custom House, erected in the 
beginning of the century, is the Sub-Treasury of New 
York, an edifice of Grecian architecture, built of Mas- 
sachusetts marble, at the cost of nearly a miUion of dol- 



904 UISTORY OF THE 

lars. Adjoining this, in the building formerly occupied 
by the old Bank of the United States, is the Assay- 
Office. On the corner of "Wall and William streets, is 
the Custom House, a magnificent edifice of blue Quincy 
granite, built originally for the Merchants' Exchange, 
at the cost of over a million of dollars. The handsome 
granite Post-office occupies the triangle at the lower end 
of the City Hall Park, below Beekman sti'eet. The 
libraries of the city are numerous and worthy of notice. 
The chief fi-ee public Libi'aiy is the Astor, in Lafayette 
Place, between Fourth street and Astor Place, which 
was erected by means of a bequest of $400,000 made 
to it in 1848, by John Jacob Astor. The building was 
first opened to the public in 1854, with a collection of 
eighty thousand volumes, under the superintendence 
of Dr. Joseph G. Cogswell. It has since been trebled 
in size and the property increased to over a million 
dollai*s, by the liberality of the descendants of the 
foxmder. 

The oldest library in the city is the Society Librar} 
in University Place, between Eleventh and Twelfth 
streets ; the liistory of this we have already sketched. 
In a tasteful stone edifice on the corner of Second Ave- 
nue and Eleventh street, is the Historical Society, 
Library, founded in 1804. Here is found a choice 
collection of historical works, chiefly pertaining to 
American history, a rare assemblage of coins and relics, 
the Abbot collection of Egyptian curiosities, the Nine- 
veh marbles, and many other valuable objects. In the 
Clinton Hall building, once the Astor Place Opera 
House, is the library and reading-room of the Mercan- 
tile Library Association, which was organized in 1836, 



CITY OF NEW Y i: K . 



905 




Custom House. 



CITY OF NEW YORK. 



907 



with seven liundred volumes, for the purpose of sup- 
plyiug the merchants' clerks with facilities for reading 
and study, and which is about to be removed to the 
corner of Broadway and Thirty-seventh street. A free 
reading-room has also been estalilished in the Cooper 
Union, togetlier ^vith a picture gallery. Other libra- 
ries, too numerous to specify, and containing many 
thousands of volumes, are attached to the vai-ious pro- 
fessional and educational institutions of the city. 

Our task is ended. Statistical lists we do not intend 
to give, nor shall we trespass upon the limits of that 
modern institution, the directory, by further mapping 
out the city, with its massive banking houses, its mag- 
nificent churches, and its marble -fronted palaces, all 
changing from hour to hour with such kaleidscopic 
rapidity that the picture of to-day would scarcely be 
recognized to-morrow. It suffices to say that in pala- 
tial splendor, ill gorgeous magnificence, and in lavish dis- 
play of inexhaustible wealth. New York may well be 
regarded as bearing off the palm from all other cities 
in the Union. Yet were this all, did her claims to her 
proud title of the Empire City rest merely upon the 
power of riches, were she but the Golden City, the 
Venice of the Western Continent, then indeed we might 
tremble for her future, sure that the seeds of decay 
were lurking in her heart. But that she has played a 
far different part in the history of her country, her 
annals give suffi -icnt proof. The first to practice that 
religious freedom which the Eastern colonists emigrated 
from tlie Old World to secure for themselves only to 
deny to others, and to throw open her doors to the poor 
and oppressed of her sister settlements : the first to 



908 HISTORY OF THE 

vindicate the freedom of the press ; the first to enter a 
practical protest against the arbitrary Stamp Act by 
dooming liei'self to commercial ruin ; the first to shed 
her blood on the battle-fields of the Revolution, and 
the chief in furnishing the sinews of war without which 
the late gigantic conflict could never have been con- 
ducted to a successful termhiatiou, New York has not 
falsified in maturer years the promises of her youth. 
Not only has she given an impetus to gigantic schemes 
of internal improvement that challenge the admiration 
of the whole world — the Ocean Telegraph, the Steam- 
boat, the Erie Canal, the Croton Aqueduct, and the 
magnificent Central Park ; not only does she, by her 
open-handed liberality, attract to herself men of science, 
enterprise, and broad and earnest thought, ingenious me- 
chanics, far-seeing merchants, talented artists, and bril- 
liant literary men, but she has fostered within her own 
bosom statesmen, philosophers, inventors, and authors, 
who may compete advantageously with any in the world. 
We have simply endeavored to chronicle the progress 
of the city, to select and briefly make mention of the 
most important facts from the mass of rich material 
which lies temptingly about us, looking longingly, mean- 
while, at the accessor)' incidents which would so charm- 
ingly fill up the picture and relieve the dullness of mere 
details, yet forced to desist by the conviction that the 
task would swell the volume beyond the compass of an 
entire library. What we could do, we have done ; and 
if any of the facts which we have thus collected 
and woven together shall suggest to the future historian 
the desire to rescue the stoiy of the past career of our 
city from the neglect with which it has hitherto been too 



CITY OF NEW YORK, 



909 



often treated, or shall inspire her citizens with love and 
pride of their native or adopted city, and urge them to 
perpetuate the memory of a glorious past by a still more 
glorious future, and to make their chosen home the 
Empire City in truth, not only of wealth, but of science, 
of learning, of art, of all that can elevate and beautify 
humanity, we shall feel that we have not labored in vain. 
The future destiny of New York rests with the pre- 
sent generation ; their verdict must decide whether she 
will patiently bear the name of the Golden City, by some 
so tauntingly bestowed upon her, or vindicate herself 
not only by past proof but by present action. That it is 
in her power, through her immense resources, her bound- 
less wealth, her buoyant elasticity, her composite popu- 
lation, the vast array of talent which lies at her disposal, 
and most of all, by the breadth, cosmopolitanism and 
geniality of the character of her people, to mould herself 
into what she will — to become the Athens of America, 
the centre of culture and of art — must be evident to all. 
Her fate is in her own hands ; whether her future fame 
is to rest on marble palaces or erudite universities — on 
well-filled warehouses or wealth of brain, she alone can 
decide. Let her but choose the latter position — let her 
out expend her wealth, regardless of outside display, in 
fostering talent, in encouraging art, in attracting to her- 
self by liberal patronage the intellectual power of the 
whole country, in endowing universities, and in develop- 
ing the mental resources of her own citizens, not by a 
lavish expenditure of money alone, but by an earnest 
appreciation of talent, and the time is not far distant 
when she will be cordially acknowledged, both by 
friends and foes, as the Empire City, not only of the 
^.Tnion but also of the World ! 56 



I M D E X. 



Academy of Music, erection of, 728. 

Academy of Design, 856, 857. 

Adriatic, launch of, 75i). 

Adriaensen, Maryn, otie of ttie Counsel of 

Twelve Men, 107. At Corleav'.s Hook, lia. 
Alexander, James, 293, 304, 33J-334, 346, 384. 
Ale-xis, (Jiand Dulce, visit of, 881, 883. 
AlIertDTi, Isaac, one of the Council of Eight 

Men, 118. 
Alsop, John, delegate to the Continental Con- 



gre 



, 477 



Ambuscade, the, arrival of, 606 ; engagement 
of the Boston \^■ith, 607. 

Andre, Major, at New York, 561 ; arrest and 
execution of, 562. 

Anthony, Allard, one of the first schepens, 
13fi ; sheriff, 157. 

Apthorpe House, narrow escape of Washing- 
ton Irom, 504, 621. 

Argall, supposed visit to Manhattan of, 41 ; 
grant of the province by James II. to, 47. 

Armory, Seventh Regiment, 894, 895. 

Arnold, treason of, 551 , 563; at New York, 512, 
M3 : death of, 563. 

Arsenal. State, erected. 780. 

Arthur, Prince, visit of, 882. 

Articles of Confederation, 586, 587. 

AsM.eiati.iii. C.iilral Kclief, orsanizcd, 799. 

As>.i^ I ;,i:hMlr_ \ \|. I S^K 

Asi..' 1 ( I .: ..f, 726. 

All:. till. Ti h L-i ipii ' iii-i.in i.f, 857,864. 

Backerus, Domine Johannes, minister at New 

Amsterdam, 120; return to Holland of, 134. 
Bailey, Gen. Theodorus, postmaster of New 

York citv in the beginning of the nineteenth 

century, '651. 
Bancker, Flores, one of the Sons of liberty, 412. 
Barentsen, expedition of, 30. 
Battles of 

the Liberty Pole, 429-J36. 

Golden Hill, 448-463. 

Long Island, 405-498. 

Harlem Plains, 605, 606. 

Fort Washington, 507, 609. 
Bauman, Sebastian, tirst postmaster of New 

York city after the Revolution, 65,5. 
Baxter, George, first English secretory of the 

province, 101. 
Bayard, Nicholas, secretary of the province, 

168; mayor, 211; member of the council in 
. 1689, 220; in the afiair of Leisler, 220-294; in 

the administration of Ncanfan, 267. 
Bayard, "William, New Y'ork delegate to Colo- 
nial Congress, 412. 
Bay.ard's Mount — See Uills. 



Beekmnn, Wilhelm, one of the first schepens, 
136. 

Beekman, Gerardus, administers affairs after 
the removal of Ingoldsby, 286 ; member of 
the council of Hunter, 288. 

Beekman's Swamp, 282. 

Beekman House, 502, 620, 621 

Belcher, Thomas, earliest patentee of lands at 
Brooklyn, 85. 

Bell, Isaac, sen., reminiscences of. 555, 566 

Belvedere, the, in the beginning of the nine- 
teenth centurv, 621. 

Bennett, J. O., died, 879. 

Bentyn, Jaques, one of the Council of Twelve 
Men, 107. 

Berrien, John, wounded at the Liberty Pule, 
482. 

Block, Adriaen, arrives at Manhattan, 39 ; builds 
the Restless, 40 ; explorations and return of, 
40. 

Blommaert, Samuel, first p.atroon of Swaanen- 
dael, 67. 

Bn^ardus, Pomine Everardus, arrival at Man. 
hattan of, 68; controversy with Van Twiller, 
66, 67; with Van Dincklagen, 77, 78; mar- 
riage with Aneke Jans of, 76; opposes the 
massacre of the Indians, 111; return to Hot- 
land, shipwreck and death of, 182. 

Bout, Jan Evertsen, one of the Council of Eight 
Men, 118; of Nine Men, 183. 

Bowling Green, annual fair held on, 96, 200; 
treaty with the Indians concluded on, 122; 
leased by the corporation, 322. 

Brarllbrd, "William, first printer in the eitv, 25f), 
811. 

Bressar, Henry, 92. 

Bridge, Loew, 870, 877. 

Bridge, Brooklyn, 880, 881. 

Bridges of New York Island, 874. 

Brockholst, Anthony, 205. 

Brooklyn, consolidation of Williamsburg and 
Buehwiclv with. 755, 7.56 

Broome, Sam'l, one of the Sons of Liberty, 
445. 

Brugges, John, Alderman, 157. 

Brvaut, W C, died, 879. 

Bunker Mansion House, the, 62.3. 

Burikll, Dr., mnrder of, 778, 779. 

Burns' Coffee House, demolition of, 782. 

Burr. Aaron, in the retreat of SiUiman's Brigade, 
804; in the affair of the Jay treaty, 610; duel 
with Hamilton, 669, 670, 

Burgher right granted to the citizens, 148, 14& 

Bushwick founded, 150. 

Butler, Gen., In New Y'ork, 886. 



Cabot, Sebastian, explorations of, 29, 



ei2 



CadwallndiT, Col , at Fort Washinpton, Sfrt- 

509 
rarleton. Sir Guv, at New York. 566. 
I'astlc Garden, 758. 
Cathedral. Roman Catholic, in Fifth Avenue, 

erected, 781. 
Central Park, history of, 759-769. 
Chanipe, John, attempt to carry oflE Arnold 

from the city made bv, 5<i3, 563. 
aiarrers. New City, 886, 891. 

(rranted to the 

New Netherland Company bv the Statea Gen- 
eral in 1614, 42. 

Expiration of. in 1618, 4& 

Gorges and his associates bv James L, 47, 

West India Company in 1621, by the States 
General, 409. 

Patroonships, oE, in 1629, 65, 66. 

Privileges of, 82, 68. 

Breuckeleil, 135. 

New Amsterdam, 186. 

Nicolls, 187, 

New Orange, 16S, 

New York, 171. 

Liberties of; 207, 20S. 

Dongan, 218. 

Mont^omerie. — 

Amended, of 1830, 782. 

Amended, of 1S49, 749. 

Amended, of 1863, 750. 

Amended, of 1857, 772. 
Chelsea House, the, 619. 
Cholera in New Y'ork, 73»-7S5, 86S, 809. 
t'hristiansen Hendrick, arrival at Manhattan of; 

39 ; Fort Nassau built by, 41 ; Death of, 42. 
Churchefi — 

Reformed Dutch — first organization of, 53; 
tirst minister of, 63, 54; primitive manners 
and customs of, 6.32-635; first church in 
Manhattan, 65; Church of St. Nicholas, 
97,99,358; South Dntch in Garden street, 
241, 242, 257, 742; Middle Dutch in Nassau 
street, 315, 316, 513, 637; North Dutch in 
William street, 687, 6i9; churches in the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, 638- 
613. 

Lutheran — organization of, in Stuyvesant*s 
administration, 142; first minister of, 159; 
church in Broadway built by the Palatines, 
159, 287; churches in the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, 644. 

Episcopal— Established by Fletcher in 1696, 
261 ; first clergyman of, 251 ; Tiinitv Church 
erected, 261, 257 ; King's Farm granted by 
Queen Anne to, 276; estate of Ancke Jans 
purchased by, 76, 275; cemetery donated to, 
275, 348, 645; Eglise dn Saint^-Esprit, built 
by the Huguenots, 2S1, 282, 808, 309, 369, 
513,514; St George's Chapel in Beekman 
street, 374; churches in the beginning of the 
nineteenth century, 648, 644. 

Presbyterian — Wall street church erected, 
801, rebuilt, 373; in the Eevolution 618; 
Brick Church in Beekman street erected, 
468; in the Kevolution, 513, 619, 649; 
churchesin the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, 648-650. 

Baptist— Gold street church, 650; Oliver 
street church, 6.51. 

.Methodist — organization of John street chapel 
erected, 399 ; in the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century, 662, 653. 

Friends— In the beginning of the nineteenth 
eenturv, 654. 

Jews' Synagogue in Mill street, 315, 653. 

Moravian— Chapel in Fulton street, 874, 654. 

Catholic — In the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, Qfio, 
Clarke, Andrew, first English schoolmaster in 

New York, 274, 
Clinton, Admiral George — See Governors. 



Clinton. Sir Henry, in the battle of Long Island. 
495-493; commander-in-chief at New York. 
552; fortifies the citv, 554; southern expedi- 
tion of, 555; sails to 'the relief of Cornwallis, 
566; superseded by Sir Guy Carleton, 560. 
Ginton, George, defence of McDougall by, 461 ; 
defence of Sears by, 462 ; first governor of the 
State, 544, 614. 
Clinton, DeWitt— See Mayors. 
Club, Union League, organized, SOS, 809 ; His- 
tory- of, S89-S60. 
Colden, Cadwallader — See Governors, 
Collect, Eolck, Fresh Water Pond, the primit- 
ive condition of, 80. 822, 328; proposed im- 
provement of, 619, 5'20 ; filled up, 680. 
Colleger — 
King's, founded. 373, 397. 398; in the P.evolu- 
tion, 472, 473 ; transformed into Columbia, 
627, 628; removed, 77S. 
Colored Troops, raising of. 8.3.3. 
Commerce, Chambrr of. Peace Meeting at, 789 ; 
Meeting of Merchants at, April 19, 1861, 794; 
Patriotic action of, 805 ; Death of the Presi- 
dent, 851. 
CommissionH — 
Christian, 816. 
Freedmen's, 816^ 
Sanitary, 814. 
Union, 816. 
Committer of 
Safety, 16S9, 222, 228. 
Correspondence, appointed bv the Sons of 

Liberty, 417. 424, 426. 
Fifty one, 474. 
One Hundred, 481-483 
Safety, appointed by the Provincial Congress, 

510, 511. 
Union Defence, 796. 
Commons, the primitive condition of; 822 ; Alms- 
house erected on, 347 ; in the Eevolution, 429- 
492; new Alms-house built on, 580; in the 
beginning of the nineteenth century, 6'24, 
Companies — 
United New Netherland, organization of, 42 ; 
treaty with the Indians, 45; dissolution of, 
46; West India, organization of. 49; coloni- 
zation of the province by, 50-56; Burgher 
government established at New Amsterdam 
bv, 136; further municipal privileges grant- 
el 139, 149; Staten Island purchased by, 
149. 
Congress — 
First Coloni.al, at New York, 412, 413. 
Second Colonial, at Philadelphia, 478, 479. 
Provincial, at New York, 479-486. 
Constitution — 
First, of the State of New York, framed at 

Kingston, 644. 
Federal opposition to, in the city of New York, 
590 ; federal procession in the city, 589 ; 
a<loption of, 691. 
Coney Island, discovery of, 82. 
Cooper, Myles. president of King's College, 397, 

Cooper, Peter, Cooper Institute foimded by, 859. 
Corcoran, General, capture of, 803; release oC 

805, 806. 
Corlaer, Jacob, 74. 
Corlaer's Hook, massacre at. 111, 112; In 1781, 

824. 
Cornelissen, expedition of, 80. 
Crummashie Hill— See Hills. 
Crystal Palace, 781. 
Cunningham, William, at the Liberty Pole, 467; 

Provost Marshal of the Revolution, 6'25--680 ; 

at the evacuation of the city, 570. 
Custom House, death of the President at, 861 ; 

removal of, 876. 



Damen, Jan Jansen, one of the Council U 



INDEX, 



913 



Twelve Men, 111 : one of the Council of Eight 

Men; expelled by his colleagues, IIS; one of 

the Council of Nine Men, 133. 
De Lancey, Stephen, first public clock of the 

city presented by, 300 ; dispute with Burnet 

308, 309. 
De Lancey, Oliver, house of, burnt at Bloom- 

ingdale, 542. .^43. 
DeVries, David Picterscn, 57, 07-70, &4, 107- 

Depo't, State Soldiers', 817. 

Depot, Grand Central, 879. 

Dernier, Thomas, visits Manhattan and claims 
it as his discovery, 46, 47. 

Dickens. Charles, in New York, 878. 

Dircksen, Barent, one of the Council of Elsht 
Men, lis. 

Dircksen, Cornells, first ferrymaster of New 
Amsterdam, 91, 92. 

Directors — 
Mey, Cornclissen Jacobsen, in 162-3, by West 
India Company, 60, 61: returns to Hol- 
land, 51. 
Verhulst, William, in 1624, 51 ; recall of, 51. 
Minuit, Peter, in 1626, appointed Director- 
General, 51, 62 ; aiTival of, 62 ; purchase of 
the Island of Manhattan by, 82 ; correspond- 
ence with Governor Bradford, of, 53, 54; 
recall of, and return to Europe, 60 ; arrest 
by the English authorities and subsequent 
release, 61, 62; visit to Sweden of, 80, 81; 
returns to America and founds Port Chris- 
tina, 81, 82 ; death and burial of, ST. 
Van Twiller, Wonter, arrival of, in 1633, 68; 
character of, 63; public improvements of, 
65 ; dispute with Bogardus of, 66, 67 ; affair 
of the " William," 67-71 ; De Vries and, 70 ; 
protest against the English on the Connecti- 
cut Elver, 72 ; expulsion of the English from 
Fort Nassau by, 72, 73 ; expedition despatch- 
ed against Wethersfield and Saybrook by, 
73 ; purchase of New Amersfoordt and Gov- 
ernor's Island by. 75-77 ; discontent of the 
people: recall of, 77. 
Kieft, Wllhelm, arrival of, 79; antecedents 
and character -of, 79; l.iw-s nod ordinances 
established by, 79, ?" : , .,:-., 1 1\\^ insti- 
tuted by, 80; protest , v. 1 I - <l..«at 
Fort Christina, of, SI. s J | i . .' Kin-'s 
and Queen's Counties S.n- m, ( . ;ii;m,iv bv, 
St, So; expedition desputiiicl oixainst the 
English on Long Island by, so, 86 ; expul- 
sion of the English from the Delaware by, 
88; public improvements of, 96-99; regu- 
lations respecting seawant issued by, 101 ; 
tribute on the Indians levied by. 103; ex- 
pedition .against the Raritans despatched by, 
105; public Assembly summoned by, 106; 
massacre of Indians at Pavoniaand Corlaer's 
Hook sanctioned by. 111; war against the 
natives cairied on by, lll-117;"tre.aty of 
peace, 117 ; recommencement of hostilities 
and continuance of the war, 118-122; treaty 
with the Indians concluded on the Bowlino- 
Green by, 122; new excise levied by, 123; 
recall 01, 125; despotism of, 126, 127; dis- 
pute 'between Bognrdus and, 127, 128 ; return 
to Europe, shipwreck and death of, 132. 
Stuyvesant, Petrus, appointed by the Com- 
pany, 125; his history and character, 127- 
129; publicimprovementsof, 129, 130; new 
excise levied by. 130; banishment of Kuyter 
and Melyn by, 131, 132; Assembly of Nine 
Men summoned bv, 182. 133; boundaries 
between N.w Ynrl nnd New England set- 
tled hv 1 :.: , .t,i, -f between the people 
and. 1 I M .It New Amsterdam 
byi'l iil- i' ranee toward the Lu- 
theraij^ -1. llJ: -mdes c-xpelled from Fort 
Christina hy, 143 ; second Indian war during 
the administration of, 143-145 ; the system 



of "burgher rights" iniililiiL-d I.\. 1 1.".. 140. 
persecution of the Quakri - '^ i I" : . , ;,,n 
of the city by the En2li-:i 1. lin. 

f.il-I.M: future career. ,1; '.i- ;ii, ;!:,,; ! 'iir""; 

''i ' > V • . ■ ,,il ofiiew Viirk, m. 

I' ' '-"■-_ . i "i.i >- I'-.'nl-ri.fMespath, 119,120. 

Drissius. Domine, assist;mt to Megapolensis, 136. 

Duer, William, 547-650. 

Dudley, Joseph, member of Council in 1089, 240, 



East India Compiiny, Dutch, 30, 31 

Eddy, Thomas, 710, 710. 

Eelkins, Jacob, agent at Fort Nassau 42' 

super-cargo of an Engli-h trading vessel ; 

contest with Van Twiller, 07-70. 
Election, Presidential, uf 1804, in New York 

836, Si7. ' 

Ellsworth, Colonel, death of, 801, 802 
Explosion, Hell Gate, 893 

Fair, Sanitary, 834. 

Ferguson, John, mayor. 703. 

Ferries, first lease of, ]3!l: I'l-nv t.. IInl. m pro- 
posed by Stuyvesant. 11-' I J, , .1 l.rrv 

lease by the coi[>' r ,, , , ]i.'.t'.i: 

ferrv rates and r-j ., ,,f 

1717,284.285; new i, rn .-lui.h-k. a i'.. i;,..,,k- 
lyn, 801 ; first ferry to 8tatcn Island, 3s4 ; ferry 
established to Paulus Hook, 898; ferries in the 
beginning of the nineteenth centurv, 6.'>9; 
history of the Long Island ferries, 6S:3,'6S7. 

Fire of 1770. .'►JO. rAl ; of 1778, 652 , of 1835, 741. 
742; of l~l,x T4S. 

Fire Deianni.nt, Paid, organized. 854. 

Flatbubh f.und./d, 137. 

Flushing first settled, 126. 

Forts — 
First redoubt built on the Island of Manhat- 
tan, 39. 
Nassau, 41, 7'2, 73. 

Amsterdam, 58, 05 ; captured and christened 
Fort James, 154 ; recaptured by the Dutch 
and called Fort Wilhelm Hendrick, 166; 
surrendered to the English and transformed 
again into Fort James^ 170. 
Good Hope, 71. 
Christina, 81. 
Casimir, 14'2. 

Fortifications of the city in 1776 49-3. 

Fortifications of 1812-1814, 701, 703 

Franklin. Lady, visit of. 783. 

Fi ir -■ Tn.,!,, the head-quarters of Wash- 

Fi'! ■ ;■ : II 1 he Prison-ship, 536-538. 
Fiili-n, I: .' , ]i i.iiiIdingoftbeClermontbv,681, 
Os-J; in the line Canal, 717. 



Gage, General, commandant at New York. 426. 
Gas C&Tnpanien — 
New York, 7-23. 
Manhattan, 7'24. 
George III., statue of, on the Bowling Green 

431, 432, 
Genet, Citizen, arrival of, 607 ; marriage at the 
Walton House, 608; policy and subsequent 
recall of, 60S. 
Great Eastern, first arrival at New York, 783. 
Oovemws — 
Nicolls, Colonel Richard, appointed by the 
Duke of York, in 1661, l.'iO; arrival and in- 
vasion of New Amsterdam by, 161-153; con- 
quest of the fort, 154; proclaimed governor, 
150; form of municipal government changed 



914 



INDEX. 



by, 157; t:ixps lovk-d by, IJiS; tolerance 
toward the Lutherans, 15S, 15&; city forti- 
fied by, 160; recall of, 161; death of, 162. 

LoTelflce, Colonel Francis, in 1668; arrival of, 
161; despotic conduct of, 161, 162; public 
meetinsr for merchants instituted; races 
approved; first mail between New York 
and Boston established by, 163; fort in- 
trusted to Captain John Manning by. 164; 
invasion of the city by the Dutch fleet; 
cowardice of Manning; capture of the town. 
164-166; return to Europe of, 166; public 
reprimand and confiscation of estates of, Itis. 

Oolve, Captain Anthony, arrival of, 103; inva- 
sion and capture of the city by, 164. 105; 
assumes command of the province, 16S; 
city fortified by, 16S; martial rule of, 169; 
contempt of witchcraft of, 169, 170; sur- 
render of the fort by, 170. 

Andros, Sir Edmund, takes command of the 
city. 170; English form of municipal gov- 
ernment restored by, 171; character and 
policy of, 195; regulations and ordinances 
established by, 197-200: bolting monopoly 
granted to the city by, 201, 202; admiralty 
court established, 202; slave laws of, 204, 
205; return to England of, 205; return to 
New York, and subsequent recall. 206; 
appointed royal governor of New England 
and New York ""207; sent a prisoner to 
England by bis subjects of Boston. 219, 

Dongan, Colonel Thomas, arrival of, 207; first 
English assembly summoned by, 207 ; mu- 
nicipal regulations of, 209, 210, 212. 213; 
monopoly for packing flour and baking 
bread for exportation granted to the city 
by. 210; charter granted by, in 1686. 213, 
Canadian policy of, 211, 210; home aflfairs, 
217; recall of. 217. 

Nicholson, Sir Francis, assumes command as 
lieutenant-governor. 217 ; superseded bv 
Leisler, 223; fii;-'lit to En-Iiind, 224; in- 



trigues at the I't 

Leisler, Jacob, :iii 

sen leader of i 

der-i 



'J'.'2 ; cho- 
appfiinled 



Safety, 224; forliii..'^ ihe l-uv ; dc-spatches a 
memorial to William and Mary, 224, 225; 
despatches Milborne to Albany, 227 ; assumes 
title of lieutenant-governor. 223 ; is acknow- 
ledged by the Albanians ; despatches an ex- 
pedition against Canada, 231 ; superseded 
bySleughter, 232; blockaded by Ingoldsby, 
233,234; letter to Sloughterand subsequent 
surrender of the fort, 234, 235; arrest and 
imprisonment of, 235; trial and condemna- 
tion, 285, 236; execution of, 236, 537; dis- 
interred and reburied in the South Dutch 
Church in Garden street, 271. 

Sloughter, Col. Henry, appointed governor, 
232; arrival of, 238; Leisler and adherents 
arrested by, 235; death warrant of Leisler 
and Milborne signed by, 237 ; municipal ordi- 
nances during the administration of, 241, 
242; death of, 245. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, in 1692, arrival of. 24G ; 
character and policy of, 247; Episcopal 
church established in the province by. 251 ; 
Indian policy, 252; suspected connivance of 
piratical depredations. 253; recall of, 254; 
progress of the city during the administra- 
tion of, 257-260. 

Bellamont, Lord, in 1G95, appointment of. 254; 
stock company for the sui>pression of piracy 
oi^anized; the Adventure t'alley fitted oiit 
by, 254; failure of t!ir , niv l■|l^i^e; popular 
discontent. 2r.r»--jri^ ; :nii\jl i-f. '.'(".(l; jioliov 
of, 261; visit t<> llnM.^n. ■_■!;;; ; dispute \\ith 
the merchants. 2tV4 ; i|. ;iiIl .>t, 2iU. 

Nanfan, John, lieuten;int-^'<>vernor, arrival of 
260; assumes direction of affairs, 265; at- 



taches himself to the Lelslerian party, L'Ofi ; 
imprisons Bayard and Hutchins, 267,268; 
superseded by Cornbury, 268. 

Cornbury, Lord, arrival of, 269 ; insti-uctiona 
of Queen Anne to, 269, 270; joins the anti- 
Leislerian party, 272 1 city schools during 
the administration of, 278 ; at Jamaica, 274, 
275; efi"orts to establish episcopacy of, 275, 
276; peculation of, 276; fortities the city, 
277,278; despotism of, 278,279; recall and 
subsequent arrest and imprisonment of, 279 ; 
progress of the city during the administra- 
tion of, 279-285. 

Lovelace, Lord, arrival of, 285; assenably con- 
vened by, 285; sudden death of, 286. 

Ingoldsby. Major Richard, arrival of, 232; con- 
test with Leisler, 233, 234 ; assumes direc- 
tion of afi'airs upon the death of Lovelace, 
286 ; removal ot; 286. 

Hunttr, Robert, arrival of, in 1710, 286; his- 
tory oi^ 286,287; joins the anti-Leislerian 
party, 268; council o^ 2SS; expedition 
against Canada dispatched by, 289; failure 
of the expedition, 290; contest with the as- 
sembly, 291 ; court of chancery established 
by, 292; popular concessions of, 298; de- 
parture for England and subsequent career, 
293, 294 ; progress of the city during the ad- 
ministration of, 294-302. 

Burnet, William, arrival of, in 1720, 802; char- 
acter and antecedents of, 803; marriage 
of; friendship with Morris, 803; council of, 
805; Indian affairs during the administra- 
tion cf. 305; policy of; abolition of the 
cin-nit ri- trirti.' by, 806; contest with the 
111. ; ' - ■■■'•: :iis; trading post at Oswe- 
L T ; congress of governors at 

Ai LI , ■:■■•. .hspute with Stephen De 
Liiiict-j. ui, ou>. boy; contest with the assem- 
bly, 309, 310; transferred to Massachusetts, 
31*0; progress of the city during the admin- 
istration of, 310-812. 

Montgomerie, John, appointment of, 310; ar- 
rival and instructions of, 312; policy of the 
ir, 812; Montgomerie charter 



granted by, 312-315; progress of the city 
during the administration of, 828 ; death of, 

Cosby, CoL William, arrival of, 828; charac- 
ter and antecedents of, 815-829; council of, 
830; contest with Kip Van Dam, 330, 331 ; 
removal of Morris from the chief justiceship 
by, 831; conduct in the Zenger trial 383- 
843; names of Smith and Alexander struck 
from the roll of attorneys by, 834; contest 
with the assembly, 34.>; rapacitv of; Rip 
Van Dam suspended by.»45; death o^ 345: 
l)rogress of affairs during the administration 
of, 347-353. 

Clarke, George, assumes the direction of 
affairs, 845; contest with Kip Van Dam, 
845,346; commissioned as lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, 346; dissolves the assembly, and re- 
stores Smith and Alexander to the bar, &46; 
negro plot during the administration of, 
355-369 ; superseded by Clinton, 869. 

Clinton, Admiral George, arrival of, 370 ; alli- 
ance with De Lancey; subsequent ruptme, 
.and alliance with Colden, 370; dissension 
with the assembly, 870,375, 376; aflair of 
the ''Greyhound," 375, 876; resignation of, 
876. 

Osborne, Sir Danvers, arrival of, 876; instruc- 
tions of, 876. 379; popular demonstrations, 
347; forebodings of the council, 879; sui- 
cide of the governor, 847; previous history, 



De Lancey, James, previous ca-^er, 330. 335. 
3711. 373; assumes direction of affairs as 
lieutenant-governor on the death of Sir 
Danvers Osborne, 8S0; policy of; 381,882; 



INDEX. 



915 



at Albnnv, 3S2; Sociptv Library fonndi-d 
uncliT tlu- aiispicos of. 8S4: jiroLTiss c.f thti 
city durin? the administration of. 3S4^S6 ; 
superseded by Sir Charles Hardy, .$S6; chief 
justice, 88T: at the head of 'affairs, 388; 
FniK-h war durinir the administration of, 



al of; incapacity for 
1 and departure 'tVom 



SSti. 
Hardv, 

OfluT. 

the j.i 

Cadwallader CoI'Ieii, assumes command as 
lieutenant-frovernor, 393; previous career 
of, 304, 30o, 330. 370, 871, 876; attempt at 
impressment durins the administration of. 
393,3i'4: death t.f <;,,,,i-e II. .iiid pr..,-luma- 

tion uf I. -_'.■ Ill . :'.:i4: tlir:,lrr .ii.ened 

in Bi'. kiu.ih -Ir.-r t v,ul-T ll„ :,u. ia.es of. 
395; su[,.rv,d.d l.v M..ri.ki.4,. :,:i.-,; a-ain 
in comm.and. :W7,4iiO; -: ; . ,; .-,,,- iu the 
colonies iu 1763, 4iil-! . . i the 

Stamp Act. 409; darmj i i i r the 
assembly to the Ministry, In-; r. ci [iiion 
of the St,imp Act in the city. 400, 410; non- 
importation agreement of" the New York 
merch,ints. 414, 415; arrival of the stamps; 
Colden undertalies the office of distributor; 
is burnt in effitry on the Bowling Green, 418, 
419 ; delivers the stamps to the mayor, 422, 
423; superseded by Moore, 425 ; again in 
command. 442 ; emission of bills of credit by 
the assembly, 443 ; tax on tea, 446; non-im- 
portation asreement rescinded. 460 ; Colden 
superseded in the government by Lord Dun- 
more. 460; assumes the government in the 
abseoce of Tryon, 467: arrival of tlie tea 
ships; tea party in New York Harbor. 
469-473; second Colonial Congress; the 
American Association. 478. 
Monckton, Gen. Robert, appointment, popu- 
larity of, 395; reception by the assembly, 
396; departure for M.artinique and return 
of, 397; municipal ordinances, 397, 39S ; re- 
turns to Enirland, 400. 
Moore, Sir Henry, conciliatory disposition of; 
reception by the Sons of Liberty, 426, 427 ; 
repeal of the Stamp Act, 429 ; Limited Sup- 
ply Bill passed by the assembly, 437; con- 
test with the assembly; disfranchisement 
of the province, 438, 4-39 ; assembly dis- 
solved by. 441 ; new assembly convened, 
«l ; death of, 442. 
Dunmore, Lord, arrival of, 460 ; complaisance 
of the assembly; trial of McDougal, 461- 
408; transfer of nunmore to Virgini.-!, 461. 
Tijon. W'!M>ni i].;- iuted governor, 461 ; re- 
fusal .t ' ' income voted by the 
asseiii ii . ! M ^ 1 1 of Sears from office, 
462; N. ,., li-iijial founded underthe 
auspi.i ^ ..I, 4..,. 4.4 , l.urning of the Govern- 
ment House, 464; tlie tea ships; spirited 
action of the Sons of Libert;-. 467. 46S ; de- 
parture for England, 467 ; return. 4S6; bom- 
bardment of the town by the Asia, 4S8; 
Hight from the city of, 449.' 
Greene, General, 494, 495, 508, 564. 
Greeley, Horace, died, 879. 



Hale, Niithan, 501, 509. 

Hall, .\, Oakcy, Mayor, 879. 

Htill. Tammany, removal of, 872. 

Hall. Thomas, 85, 13.3. 

]|,iiMi:i-ii. Andrew, defence of, in the Zenger 
t,i:,l. :',a5-34.3. 

I!:ii]iilt.in, Alexander. rithtU of, in the great 
ni. . tin- in the fields. 477: in the affair of the 
A-ia, 4^>: p.,liii,-al .-aiver of. 588-605; in the 
atlair.if the .lay treat! . 010 ; death of, 669,670. 

Hamilton. Lieut., death' of, 7S1. 

Hanibrd. Levi, reminiscences of, 515-521. 

HaWenburg, Araoldus, 126, 138. 



Ilarlr-m first settled, U8. 

llaipc.r Hiothers' Priutingand Publishiug Es- 

tablisbment burned, 7^, 754. 
Hart. Petci . nails the flag over Sumter, 790,791. 
H.-ivemeyer, W. F , death of. 891. 
Health, Board of. 866, 867, 868, 869. 
Heemskerck, expedition of. 30. 
Heemstede, first settled, 120 ; Indian massacre 

at, 121. 
Heermans. Augustine, one of the Council of Nine 

Men, 1.3.3. 

Bayard's Mount, afterward Bunker UilL 25 
324,503. 

Crumma.shie, 324, 

Incleuberi;. 8'24. 

Murray, .104. 619. 

Potter's, 824. 

Zantber..'. 2.i, 3'24. 
Holfmau. .I..5iah Ogden, recorder, 6S9, "08. 
Holmes, George, settles at Turtle Bay, 8S. 
Ilitfipitain — 

New York, founded. 463, 625, 753. 

Bellevue, 624. 



■ft-o 



.779. 



Hotel Burning, 837. 

Howe, Gen., arrival a; -i.iii 1 '.,.;. r -(:':;• in 
the battle of Lon- ! : i - Km,-, 

B.iy, 502; in the 1...' I: r .".-,, 

506; in commandat Ni ,. \.il .', l, .-: ; , r. . all 
of. 552. 

Hudson, Henry, first expeditions of. 81 : discov- 
ery of Manhattan by, 88; ascends the river, 
84; encounter with the Indiansat Fort Wash- 
ington, 36; return to Europe, 87; death of, 
38. 

Hudson River, various names of, 84. 35. 

Hughes, Hugh, one of the Sons of Liberty. 41'2. 

Huyck, .Jan, " Krankbesoecker" at New Amster- 
dam, b'i. 

Improvement, Fourth Avenue, 892. 

Incleuborg— See Hills. 

Independence, Declaration of, reception in New 

York of, 492. 
Indian War, first, 111-122; second, 144, 145. 
Institutions, benevolent, in the beginning of the 

nineteenth century, 628-680. 
Irving. Washington,' birthplace of, 885. 
Islands — 
Barent's or Barn. Great, now Ward's, pur- 
chased by Van Twiller, 76, 77; site of Emi- 
grant Hospital, 878. 
Barent's or Barn, Little, now Randall's, site 

of the House of Refuge, 87-3. 
Bedloe's, first quarantine established at, 355; 

Fortifications of, 874, 
Blackwcll's, purchased bv Yan Twiller, 76, 

77; pubir; buildings of, '873. 
Nutten, no .7 Governor's, purchased by Yan 

Twiller, 76; fortifications of, 498, 874. 
Oyster, now Ellis, fortifications of, 874. 
Staten. grant of land to Cornells Melyn, 85: 
purchased by the Company ; first settlement 
of the Huguenots. 142; Howe at, 493; in 
thu Revolution, 555, 556; fortifications of, 
874. 



.Jacobson, Marcus, sold into slavery by order of 
Lovelace, 163. 

James. Major, house destroyed by the Sons ol 
Liberty, 420. 

Jansen. Roelef, land granted by 'Van Twiller to, 
75. 76. 

Jans, or Jansen, Aneke, widow of Koelef; mar- 
riage with Bogardus of, 76 ; sale of estate t(r 
the Colonial government, and subsequent lease 
to Trinity Church. 76. 275. 

Jansen. He'ndrick.one of the Council of Twelve 
Men, 107. 



916 



INDEX. 



Jansen, Michael, 133. 
Japanese Eiiiha-M,\i- 



niief Justier, ;■,:,: IVace fommissii.ner, 
567 ; in tlie Dociors' Moi), 5S5 ; governor of 
New York, 509 ; tifiity of, 509-511. 

Jay, Peter A., recoriliT, 704. 

Johnson, Rev. Samuel, 373. 397. 631. 



Kennedy House, 490. 633. 

Kennedy, John A , 789, 790. 

Kidd, William, 251, ■.'54. 2.i5. S.56. 

Kip. Hendrick Hendricksen, 95, 13.3. 

Kins, Charles, president of Columbia College, 

784. 
King's Farm granted to Trinity Church, 275, 

347. 
King, Preston, death of, 857. 
Knox, rieneral, in command at New York, 

siis-.in. 

Ivnowiton. Colonel, 505, .506 
Knv]ihauson, General, 495, .508, 511. 
Koisnth, Louis, arrival at New York of, 751 . 
KriL'ier, Martin, one of the first burgomasters. 

96. 1.3.i. 136. 
Krol. Sebastian Jansen, " Krank besoecker " 

at New Amsterdam, 53. 
Knvter, Jochein Pietersen, ariival of, 83 ; one 

of Council of Twelve Alen, 107; one of 

Council of Eight Men, 118 ; dispute with 

Kieft ; exiled from the province, 130, 131 ; 

shipwreck, 132 ; appointed schout l>y llie 

Company, 140 ; murder of, 141. 



Laborie, Rev. .James, tirst pastor of the French 

church lu Pine street, 281. 
Lai'^'hl, EdwVi, one oflhe Sons of Liberty, 412. 

Lafrr.' ffr Cr I- ;;r!" ;ii T.f. .507; departure from 
N' ■ > "I ' 1 -'■<■-' ;iii-nt visit of,714. 

La!,, .• ■,',.,. 

Laiiiii ,1,, ,n. ih s,,iisof Liberty, 412, 

41, , an,. -led l.\ 11..- assembly, 445, 480; 

in the atlair of 1 lie Asia, 48S ; in the federal 

riot, 590, 591. 
Lanipo. Jan, first schout fiscal of the province, 

1' J 
1 1 ^' ' 1UU8 nn-mbtrof theCoun- 

111 120 UI 130 
Li itis from the hve Dutch 

II II It New \mbteidam. 141. 

Lt I (ja. n C h II k ^ in comni ind at \ew York, 

490 al rested and impi ironed m the City 

Hill 54) 
I'll I \r . 1 1 till battle of llailem Plains, 

1 of the Sons of Liberty, 

L 1 - „ \ enior of the State of New 

1 ik IS -Ul 

Lilart\ Pole erected on the Commons, 429; 

cut donn b^ the British soldiers, erected 

and igun tut dov\n 4i2-4-3) new Liberty 

Pole elected bv the Sonsof Libeitv,454,455. 
Li/jiune<- 

\stor 876 

Cooper Inion, 978 

Hisioiieal boe ctj in 1S04 876 

Leno\ 895 

Meicantile in 1S.36 876 878 

Soelet^ in 17j4 il9 J2n JM 655 R76. 
Lincoln Pre-idelit ilntlou of 7^4 7,S5 ; first 

iilltirmenbx ~M death of 8.)0 ; obse- 

auiesin Nm \ork Sjtl S>1 
Li peiiaid Leonard di l< gate to fllst Colonial 

Congress 413 477 
Lispenard s Meadow s, >3, 335 



Livingston, Robert, first proprietor of Liring- 
stoh Manor, 2.36. 256. 265. 

Livingston, William. 3.3ii, 409. 

Livingston. Philip, leader of the Presbyterian 
party, 373 ; delegate to first Colonial Con- 
gress. 412. 477. .547. 

LiviiiL'-i. I:, i: .: . i: n.. delegate to first Colo- 
nial I ' 1 ■ ' line of theframersof the 
Dei I II ' I i'l' iiendence, 492; chan- 
cellii,..i . Ill 11' laie Canal. 713, 720. 

Livingston. .Maiiuni. recorder, 687. 

Loockermans. Govert, 92 ; one of the Council 
of Nine Men, 133. 

Low, Isaac, 441, 474. 

Lupoid, Ulrich, schout fiscal, 77, 79. 



Masonic Temple, 881. 

Magaw. Colonel, in command at Fort Wash- 
ington, 507-509; prisoner at New Y'ork, 
513. 

Manhattan, the island of, in its primitive 
state, 21, 24, 28; natives of, 25-28; causes 
which led to the discovery of, 28. 33 ; first 
settlement of, 39 ; purchase by the Dutch 
from the Indians of, 52 ; Fort Amsterdam 
erected on, 57 ; first ship bniltat, 59. 

Manhattan Waterworks, 745, 746. 

Manning, Captain John, left in command of 
theciFy, 164; .surrender of the fort to the 
Dutch by, 166 ; court martial of, for coward- 
ice, 166, 167. 

Mamaroneck, the properly of Caleb Heath- 
cote, 299. 

Mayors. List of— 
Willett, Thomas , first mayor of the citv in 
1665. 1667. 157, in the affair of Leisler, 235. 
Delavall, Thomas, 1666, 1671, 1678, 157, 171, 

172, 173. 
Steenwyck, Cornelius, 1668, '69, '70, "83, '83. 

173. 
Nicolls or Nicholas, Matthias, 167U, 173. 
Lawrence, John, 1673, 157 ; deputy mayor, 

1674 ; mayor, 1691, 173, 173, 235,"3;J6. 
Nicolls, Matthias, November 10, 1074. 
Dervall, William, 1675, 173. 
De Meyer, Nicholas. 1676, 198. 
Van Cortlandt, Stephanas. 1677, lG86-'89, 
200, 301 ; in the affair of Leisler, 330, 236, 
239. -m, 2.35. 241. 
Romiv..i», Fnii-.i--. 1679, 201. 

Dvr. \v I "s.!, 1681, 205, 206. 

I 1 1684, 210, 211; in the 



all. I 



.\ . 



Bav 

affairof L. 1-1. I .' 

the admini-iiai ei 

Delanoy, Pier r a... 

elected by the _peo| 



15>;. oil : in the 



ill mayor 
l..:iii.:;-J3.325; 
contest with Van Cortlandt. 336, 238. 

De Pevster, Abraham. 1691-1694, '341, .305. 

Lodowick. Charles. 1694. 23:!. 250. 

Merritt, William, 1695-1698. 360. 

De Peyster, Johannes, 1698, 260, 266, 
367. 

Provoost. David. 1699. 362. 2GI1. 

De Riemer. Isaac, 1700. 

Noell, Thomas. 1701 ; appointed, 265 ; con- 
test between the Leisleriaiis and anti- 
Leisleriaus during the admiuistration of, 
265-267. 

Fiench, Philip, 1702, 263, 380. 

Peartree. William, 1703-1706, 281. 

Wilson, Ebenezer, 1707-1710. 383. 

Van Cortlandt, Jacobus, 1710, '19, 394. 

Heathcote. Caleb. 1711-1714, '347. 398. 299..305. 

Johnston. John. 1714-1718, 300. 30.5. 

Walters, Robert, 1720 1734, 305, 311. 

•Jansen, Johannes, 17*35, 311. 

Lurting, Robert. 1786- 1734. 311, 347. 

Richard, Paul, 1735-1739, 347. 



917 



eraser, John. 1V39, 1743, 333. 

Biiyard. Stephen, lT+4-n-(ri. 370, 371, 

Holland, Ed\v:ir(l. i:i: i: r, :;r:! 

Criiger. John, ,ii li" ■ ■ :'il : dispute 
with Lord Lt)iii;ii '., i!i'Iep:ate to 

first Coloiiiiil ' - ' sl.Hmjis re- 

ceivi'd fi.iMi I .. . ■. i;j, 441. 

Iliclvs. w 1 !■ I ,■ ;: I ;r 438, ■154. 

MatlK'\\ - |i; ,i i il.si, mayor 



CIniloi,. i>v \^ itr. l,sii:-i-)>. • ;-.'- I--I I , ,|,- 
pointeil, (ilj8; vemuv. .1 : i i : , . 

aity ; reappointed inn; i :: i. 

687; restored to offlei', i-^^ , ri. . i . d l^m i - 
nor. 704; in the Erie canal, 71ij-vx'l ; 
death of, 74J. 

Willett, Marinas, 1807, appointed mayor, 
6S7 ; previous career of, 412. 480. 484, 486, 
603; aml.a—i.l.M :„ i!,,. r , rk>, 890, 

Radcliir, .1 II ..li 1-'- ]-r ! IS, appointed, 
689: ivapi, ,. -n: ;n| 

Fergu^ni,, .luiiii. Mil. II, lM:,-.linie. 1815. 

Coldeu, (.'aawallader Li., lul.s-lwjl, appoint- 
ed to the mayoralty, 704 ; removed, 705. 

Allen. Steph.-n. Ifii, 1S22, appointed, 705 ; 
superseaerl. 706. 

PauklijiL', Will[|.ii, 1S.J3, 1824, 1826, 1827, 

Hone, I'i. :> ' - 

Bowni. ',\ : .' |s:!i, 732-733. 

Lee. fii.l. . I - . 

Lawreii.. I \\" , 18.'M-1837. 743. 744. 

CUark. .\ .: ■ ;. ;>. 744. 

Variiii, l-i;. I. i- .'• l.tll). T44. 745. 

Morii>. 1;..I...|L il,. i,s41-lf>14,745. 

Harper, James. Ib44, 74S. 

Havernever. William F., 1845, 1848, lS;:i. 
1874, 718. 749. 

Mirl:!,. \i,-lr..,v TT., 1846,748. 

V.I :.!. W.i . ;.., \- 1-47, 749. 

^\. .' Ill 1 ' I . Il s . islil, 1850,749-751. 

Kill-- I .\" .■ <'.. 1851. 18,52,751. 

\\\.,;ri i,.,l, ,1a. ..b -\., lS.i.3, 1854. 7.51. 7&4. 

Wood, Fernando, 1S55-1S57, 1S60, 1861, 782. 

Tiemann, Daniel P., 1858, 185.9, 780, 

Opdyiie, George, 1863, 1863. 803. 

Gnnther. C. Godfrey, 1864. 1865, 831. 

Hoffman, JohnT., 1866-1S60, .s57. 

Hall. A. Oakev, 1869-1873. 

Wickham, William H., 1875, 1876. 

Ely, Smith, 1877, 1878. 

Cooper, Edward, 1879, 1880. 
McDougall, Alexander, one of the Sons oi Lib- 
erty, 412; arrest and imprisonment of, 445, 

446; one of the Committee of Fifty -one, 474; 

colonel of New York regiment, 4SG. 
McEvers, James, stamp distributor at New York, 

40T. 417. 
McGiUivr.ay, Alexander, visit of, with Creek 

deputation, 608, 604. 
Megapolensis, Domine, clergyman at New Am- 
sterdam, 134. 
Meh-n, Cornells, arrival of, S3; grantee of Staten 

Is'land, 66 ; one of Council of Eight Men, 118; 

dispute with Kieft; exiled from the colony, 

180, 131 ; shipwreck of, 182. 
Mespath, destruction of, 119; Indian massacre 

at, 121. 
Michaelius, Rev. Jonas, supposed first clergy- 
man at New Amsterdam, ft?, 64. 
Milborne, J acob, despatched by Lcisler to Al- 
bany. 22T ; return to New York, 223 ; second 

expedition to Albany. 230, 231 ; arrest and 

imprisonment of. 235 ; trial and execution of, 

236-238 ; disin terred and buried in the Garden 

street church, 271. 
Militia, New York City, tendered by Gen. Sand- 



ford for the suppression of the rebellion, 7S9 : 

first departure lor the seat of war, 79S-b01 , in 

1S63, 819. 
Minetta Brook, 25, 824. 
Moleraar. Abram, one of the couneU of Twelve 

Men, 107. 

Miilila_.||. , \'.i.i'i INI, II I, 117, I.".', 1^;, 

Mi.i.:- ... I I. I: . ■ ,: I :, ,. , ,1 of, in St. 



Jlo 



, Lew 



.1. 732. 



the 



.1 II -' ... . .11 iisticc,293. 

303. 306, :;.';i , i.i ,..i imiii .ni,. .. iiy Cosby, 

■■■']: . -piiiM-J lUi- cause el \uu Dam, 345 
I .if New Jersey, 346. 
■I . I. iverneur, 485, 547, 650, 691, 719. 
;..i 1 ,1 ,1,1 i.nrchased by Lewis Morris, 2S8. 
.Moiii., il.Mi.-e, Col. Roger, 506, 621. 
Jluseum, Banmm's, bunied, 857. 
Museum of Art, Metropolitan, 890, 899. 



Negro plot of 1712, 291, 292; of 1741, 3.55-369. 
New Netherland erected into a province, 51 ; 
conquest ol^ by the English, 163 ; recapture by 
the Dutch, 164; ceded to the English govern- 
ment in exchange for Surinam, 166. 
J^etcs/j apera — 
Constitutional Corn-ant, issued in 1765, 409, 

410. 
Greenleafs Patriotic Register, 589, 690. 
Independent Keflector, organ of the Presbvte- 

rian party in 1764, 383. 
New York Gazette, first paper in the city, 
published by William Br.adford, 260. 311, 
882, 834, 388. 
New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy, 383, 

418, 444, 643. 
New York Weekly Journal, issued by John 
Peter Zenger, 282 ; burnt by the hangman, 
283 ; discontinuance of, 383, 
Rivington's Gazette, destroj^ed by the Liberty 
Boys, 489 ; transformed mto the Eoyal Ga- 
zette, 543. 
Weekly Mercury, published by Hugh Gaino, 

888, 548. 
Journalism in the city, 656, 734-741, 789. 
Newtown found<'d. 137. 
New York ill 1S68, 873. 
Notelman, Conrail, schout fiscal, 52, 59, 65, 72, 



O'Brien, Colonel, murder of, 827, 
Opera House, Grand, 878. 
Opera-House Riot, Astor Place, 749-752. 
Oswald. Francis, 413, 487. 



Packets, first line of European, established, 

709, 710. 
Palatines, immigration of, 287 ; migration to 

Pennsylvania and Li\ingston's Manor, 288. 
Paulus Hook, purchase of, 57. 
Pauw, Michael, patroon of Pavonia, 57, 
Pavonia, first erected into a patroonship, 57 ; 

purchased by Ihe company, 78; Indian mas- 
sacre at. 111, 112. 
Pedro II., Dom. visit of, 892, 
Philipse, Frederick, member of council in 1689, 

220, 
Philipse, Adolphus, judge of Supreme Court, 

330, 331 ; in the Zenger trial, 835, 
Planck, Abraham, one of the councU of Twelve 

Men, 107, 
Pintard, John, reminiscences of, 513, 514, 526- 

530, 710, 719. 
Pitt, William, statue of, 431. 
Polhemus, Domine Johannes, installed at Mid 

wout, 142. 
Police, Metropolitan, instituted, 772. 



918 



INDEX. 



Police Riot, 773. 774, 776. 

Po*r Offic<". New York, built, 679, 880. 

Pi.rr.M-- Ki<-]r] (116. 017. 

I'M ,.(-,.; !1h I. •.volution, 512-531. 
I-!- ; M,.- Revolution, 531-540. 



i-M\._ii!L!!M.i House and public bnildins^ 

erected by VanTwiller. H5 ; stone tavern. 

in 1642, »t Coenties Slip, by Kicft, 79 ; 

converted into a Stadt Hays, 136. 
First Market-house, 147. 
City Hall built in "Wall street ; Stadt Huys 

sold at auction, 25S. 
Aims-House erected on the Commons, 3l)0, 



ii:^'e, at the foot of 

74. 

>t of Park Place, 3;;3; 



the Revolution, 522, 523, 5S0, 



84T, 

First M. 
Brua.l 

King';^ < 

Coliinil.i,, t ..Il._.. '.JT. t>28. 

New York ll<.si.it;il, founded in 1"3.4G3,4C4, 
625, 626. 

Bridewell, 
5S1, 623. 

New Jail, in the Revolution, 523-5:J0, 5S1, 
623, 624. 

Federal Hall in "Wall street fitted up for Con- 
gress, 591. 

Government House erected on the site of the 
old fort; afterwnrd the Custom House, 596, 
597, 655. 

Alms House on the Commons, in 1796, 5S1. 

State Prison at Greenwich. 623. 

Bellevue Establishment, 627. 

Post-office. 655. 

Tontine Coffee House, 630. 

Arsenal, 660. 

City Hall built iu the Park, 667. COS. 

Jlerchants' Exchange built in Wall street, 729 ; 
burning of. 742. 

Public buildings of 1859, 775-783. 
I'ublic improvements and municipal ordi- 
nances— 

Fort staked out; horse-mill built, 58. 

Foit rebuilt; graveyard laid out; windmills 
1 uilt, 65. 

Civil and criminal court established; excise 
laws established by Kieft, 80. 

Two annual fairs instituted in 1641, 96. 

City wall built alony the line of Wall street, 
123. 

Fire w.irdens appointed; wtights and meas- 
ures regulated, 134. 

Fortifications erected in Wall street, 137. 

Burgher rights established in the city, 145, 146. 

Fire-buckets, hooks and ladders imported, 
and a rattle watch organized; thatched 
roofs and wooden chimneys abolished, and 
improved property subjected to taxation, 
146. 

Latin school (jpc-ned. 147. 

Roadoi'^ iM il I , II. ii:, m, 143. 

Publicn:>. , ii.intsinl669,in Broad 

streii, fithly mail established 

bet^vr,n^.^^ \ .1 1 :iii<l Boston, 102. 

Ordinances orv\ndrns. 197-200. 

Broad street improved, 199. 

Slaughter houses removed from the city, 200. 

Public wells built in the city, 134, 201. 

City divided into six wards, 209, 210. 

Po",'der magazine established at the Smit's 
Vly, 212. 

Water street projected; Wall street laid out, 
213, 214. 

City fortified by Leisler, 226. 

Water street extended ; Pine and Cedar streets 
laid out, 241. 

Maiden Lane regnlated, 253. 

Streets cleaned at public expense, and for the 
first time lighted, 258, 259: 

First English school established in the citv, 
273, 274. 



First night watch established. 2i9. 
Freedom of the city in Cornbury's adminis 

tration; street cleaning; jmblic pound, 279, 

2S1. 
Water street extended ; Broadway paved ; 

ordinances of 1707, 283. 
Market opened at the upper end of Broad 

street, 296, 3'97. 
First purchase of furniture for the use of the 

Common Council, 297, 298. 
Public dock put up on the City Hall, 800. 
First ropewalk bulit in Broadway, 301. 
New ferry established, 301. 
Jews'bui-ial ground established near Chatham 

Square, 315. 
Powder Magazine built on the island in tho 

Collect, 815. 
Greenwich and Washington streets com- 
menced; new ships built, 319. 
Line of stages established between New York 

and Philadelphia, 819. 
First public library established in the city 

319, 820. 
Markets of 1785, 821. 

Tlie "Strand" sold at public auction, 322. 
Pearl street laid out and regulated, 322. 
City divided into seven wards, 325. 
Fire engines first introduced, 325; fire depart- 
ment organized, 326. 
Alms House and House of Correction built on 

the Commons; Cortlandt street opened, 317. 
First stone of the new battery laid on the 

Whitehall rocks, 348. 
Water street named and extended, 343. 
Rector street opened, 349. 
Quarantine established at Bedloe's Island, 355. 
Market-house built in Broadway, opposite 

Liberty street, 353. 
John. Hey. Bookman and Thames streets 

pnvr-^ ■!n.( r, -iilated. 374. 
Fir- M. ! ' ,; Exchange built at the foot 



ie(i. 37; 



betwe 
-J. 



New York and 



IV. .. -:., i 1 and paved, 8S4. 

Fiilivi. .-u, , 1 .•j.uK-d and regulated, 394. 
Theatre opened in Beekman sti-eet, 395. 
Public lamps and lamp-posts for the first time 

erected, 397. 
Sandy Hook lighthouse lighted for the first 

time. 898. 
Ferries established between New York and 
Paulus Hook, and Staten Island and Bergen, 
898. 
New York Hospital commenced, 46:3. 
Canal constructed in Canal street, 578, 579. 
Collect filled up, 680. 
First sidewalks laid in the city, 581, 532. 
Broadway graded below Canal street, 5S2. 
Streets numbered, 582. 

Manhattan Water-works constructed, 663, 667. 
Public Schools established in the city, 674- 

677. 
Introduction of Steam Navigation, 678-683. 
Steam ferry-boats first used on the rivei-s, 

636, 6S7. 
New York island surveyed and laid out, 691, 

692. 
Fortification of the harbor, 697-701. 
European packet lines established, 709, 710. 
First Savings Bank opened in the city. 710. 
Introduction of gas into the city, 723, 724. 
Marble first used as a building material, 726, 

727. 
Penny press first established, 734-73S. 
Introduction of the Crotou water into the 

citv 745-748. 
Crystal Palace opened in 1&53, 751. 
Central Park purchased and laid out, 759-770, 



010 



Putnam, Con. Israel, 490. 485-408, 603, 604, 



Quackenbos, Isaac, 448-450. 
Quarantine, Staten Island, burned, 780. 

Racliel in New York. 758, 759. 
Railroads, Elevated 896-899. 
Randall, Tli..mas. AT. 

Rapelje. ( -■ .l:ii,-o, .1-, .-0, 84, 107. 

Rapid Ti:ii • ■-•'' 

Rosieres, I ;. ' .' :■' .-4 
Rawlins. (■■ i.iiii , :.",. .•.ii.s, .Mi. 
Raymond. 11. .7.. died, 879, 
Real Estate Speculations. .'.75-.'-77. 
Regiment, Se\enth, march to Washington, 
793, 794. 



Riots, Oi 
Ristori. \ 
Riker, Ki 

Kitzin:i. I 

i;ii,'iii,,. .■ 

-1^7 



«"■ 



I. I. iMiS, 708, T04. 
the (.:i»lie^i.'ite Church. 533. 
nelolNew York regiment. 



r[i. r;il, military commandant of the 

city, 5110. bo3. 
Robinson. Thomas, one of the Suns of Libertv. 

410, 417. 
Robinson, Beverly, 421. 
Kou, Rev. Louis, of the FrencQ Church in Pine 

street, SOU. 



Sandy Hook, discovery of, 32. 

Saybrook founded. 7S. 

Schuyler, Peter, 224, 265, 294, 306. 

Scott, John IMnrin. one of the Sons of Liberty, 
411; in !':'■ F.r":.'l "fi-f.'t nffair, 485, 

Seal first - ■:• ! ' :!i . itv. 1R9. 140; flrstEng- 
lishsriil :<: . .1 ' I r.Mi. 213, 214. 

Sears, Is.m i', ~.ms of Liberty, 410, 

417; «..,,. I :, I il-rtv Pole, 4.32, 435; 

inthi.li ii I : 11'" I '--t.'iit; removal 

from •■111' ■ i 1 irum thecity 

to tlu- 111 I) '■■ ' -' --. 479; arrest 

and sul'.-.c.i.Kiii itu.ic.^ wi. isu ; enters the 
army, 4S7; office of Jiiciiigtuii s Gazette de- 
stroyed by, 489. 

Selyns, Domine Henry, installed at Breuckelen, 
171. 

Shoemaker's Land, the, 328. 

Skinner, Abraham, American Commissary, 539. 

Smits, Claes, murder of, 106. 

Smith, \VilH:iin. i'.a. .Son: in the Zenger trial, 
331 Z'-^:.:- nil. k iiMiii !!,i ii~i i.f ;ittorney8 by 
Cosbv, :: ! ' '.I ; i .1 .;7.3, 376,409. 

Smith, 'Ml • '■ Mi-n Hill, 461. 

Smith. (.i'..i'i'.> 111, 1' ■ • [III. .11 ..:, - ■- 

Societies, beiievoknt, in the lnu'innins of the 
nineteenth century, 62S-630; in 1859. 7S4; 
religious, in the beginning of the nineteenth 
century, 631. 

Society. Loyal Publication, history of, S09-S13. 

Sons of Liberty, organization of, 409 ; leaders of, 
410; patriotic handbills of, 413; Committee 
of Correspondence chosen bv. 417; Cuiden 

burnt in efflgy on the (' n- !'} 11^120; 

stamps delivered by * - ' - i - 428; 

stamp distributor for Mi ' i I by. 

426; stamps on board tin Mi: ■ i i - i/. 4 and 
burnt bv. 427.428; tirst st:oo|i.'d |i;i|«.r seen 
tn thee'itv.42S: Lord Grenville, Lord Colville 
and General .Miirrav burnt in effi-v on the 
Commons. 42'-, 429; repeal of the Statnp Act; 
Liberty Pole erected .m the Commons bv. 



429, 430; battles about the Liberty Pole, 429- 
430; handbills denounciiig the Assembly is- 
sued bv. 444; arrest of John Ijunb. 445; 
Liberty Pole cut down bv tli.' .soldi, .r>. in- 
dignation iiir.tiii_-ol'tli..>oii,sol' l.ni.rli, IIT; 
battle of (i-ildrii Hill. H-- t.'^-l; l,ili.ri> I'ol- 
erected bv,4.vi, 4.V.; ll;oiiii,l.-ii Ibill |.ui. Ii.i-.d 
by, 455, 456; Nathan l:o^'ir>. 4..^; -iitii.d 
action in respect to the hiu.lin,' oi' i.:i I'o 
463; aiTival of the tea ships; t. ;i i>iiilv m ^■ w 
York Harbor, 469-473; leai. takini; ol ih,- 
captains by the Sons of Liberty, 472. 47o ; 
correspondence with the Sons of Liberty in 
Boston; the Committee of Fifty-one ; renewal 
of the non-importation .agreement proposed. 
4T:; 171. ..1. I 111, eting in the fields, 476, 477; 
),,, i I I lloston BaiTacks seized by. 
4m,. I.I . it the news of the battle of 
L, \,iijt..ii l,\ l-,l-433; seizure of the stores 
at lurll,- ISav 1,.\,4S3; the Broad street affair, 
484-486; removal of the cannon from the 
Battery; bombardment of the town by the 
A-i:i, 4^s; HUhiaiana Gazette destroy, d by. 



:,:-V640. 
, .,r. 877. 878. 
ilie Doctors' 



Steulieii. liaioii. M,, b 
Mob. 586. 

Stewart's Grave, desecration of, 895, 

StirlinK, Lord, Long Island granted by Ply- 
monfli I'riniiianv to. 85, 86. 

Stirling: I.oiil \\ liliam Alexander, in the bat- 
tle of l.oiiL' l-land. 494-498; e.xpedition 
latoii Island of, 556. 



Sir 



.878. 



Tabernacle, Broadway, history of, 779-780. 
Telegraph, first Magiietic, from ^"e^v York, 

748. 
Theatre. Booth's, 878, 
Tombs, 783, 

Tompkins, Daniel D., 761, 702, 715. 
Treaty of Tawasentha, 41, 45. 
Tweed, death of, 891. 



Underbill, -John, settles in New Netherland, SB ; 

in the Indian war, 118-121 ; revolts against the 

Dutch government, 137. 
Union Square Meeting. April 20, 1861, 796, 796. 
Utrecht, New, founded by Jaques Cortelyou, 150. 



Van Cortlanilt, Oloffe Stevenson, alderman, 157. 

Van I ■II"- III.'., 11.92, 183, 186. 

Villi I ' 1.; , iiiber of Council of Hunter, 
*j-- .,,. I iiinu-t, 805; administers affairs 
all, r III, ,1. i.iii ,.1 .Montgomerie, 828; •ontest 
with Cosby, liso, 331 ; contest with Clarke, 845. 

Vanderclifl'''8 Orchard, 32.3, 824 

Vandergrist, Paulus, one of the first schepens, 
136. 

Van Dincklagen, Lubbertus, schout fiscal of the 
province; dispute with Van Twiller, 72; sus- 
tained by the States General, 77, 78; Vice- 
Director under Stuyvesant, 125, 

Van Dyck, Iknilrick, in the Indian war, 109. 



920 



Van Fees, Anthony, earliest conveyance of pro- 
perty in the city made to, 95. 
Van OlieeL Maximilian, one of the first schepens, 



136. 



, burgo: 



Hatten, Areut, one of the 

ters. 186. 
Viui Ness House, the, 618, 619. 
Van Kemund, Jan, koopman, 52, 63, 65, 
Van Kuyven, Corneliu^ alderman, 157. 
Van Schelluyne. Dirck, first lawyer of New 

•Vnisterdam, 184. 
Vau Tienhoven, Cornelius, koopman, 64, 71*; in 

the Indian war, 104, 105; schout, 136. 
Van Vaurk, James, 145. 
Van "WM-k, Piciie C. recorder, 6S7-6S9. 
Van .7.n:V, J..o.l.,KS, 445. 
Xrt: I 1 III li-ifivery of Manhattan by, 28; 



V,■^>■ 



iri^i, first clergyman of Trinity 



Wadsworth, James A., Major-General, of New 

York, sol. 
Wales, Prince of, visit to New York, 783-784. 
Wallabout, the, settled, 50, 51. 
Walloons, arrival of, 50. 
Walton House, the, erected, 385, 386. 
Wampum, description of, 99, 100; ordinance 

respecting, 100, 101 



Washington, Gen., in command at New York, 
491; at the Battle of Long Island, 49&-49S; 
retreats from Lon^ Island, 498-500 ; evacuates 
the city. 501; in the battle of Harlem Plains. 
505, 606; at Morrisania, 506; evacuates the 
island. 501 ; conspiracy against, baffled by the 
New York delegation,'M9, 550; enters the city 
on the 25th of November, 1783, 56S; at 
Fraunces' Tavern, 572, 573 ; inaugurated first 
President of the United States in the Citv 
Hall in Wall street, 594, 595; life in New- 
York. 596-600. 

Washington, Union Square statue, 770. 

Westchester Annexation, 891. 

Wiley, William. 412, 417, 487. 

Williams, Erasmus, one of the Sons of Liberty, 
445. 

Winter Garden burned, 872. 

Wistar, Caspar, one of the Sons of Liberty, 445. 

Wolferrs Marsh. 25, 824. 

Woodhull, Gen. Nathaniel, death of. 49& 

Wool, Gen., in command at New York, 799. 

Worth Monument, erection of, 770. 



Zantberg— See Hills. 

Zenker, John Peter, birth and history of, 882 ; 
* """ iT,.,.^ Weeklt/ Journal published by, 
■ " — ; '*tBe 



loi-iMMY UP •■.:•■ '.MGRFSS 



III I I I 

014 222 878 6 



